Coal Museum of the Serbariu Mine in Carbonia
Recently inaugurated (November 2006), the Italian Center for Coal Culture in Carbonia is an instrument for the protection, enhancement and promotion of the important industrial archeology complex of Serbariu.
DISCOVERING
The Coal Museum of the Serbariu Mine in Carbonia
The largest coal mine in the whole of Italy, now inactive, thus finds its consecration in the tourism sector: a museum that illustrates the troubled history of the miners and their families to the visitor, shows the entire production cycle and the different techniques of coal cultivation, houses a vast collection of vintage lamps and tools used in the mine and tells the various stages of the birth and development of Carbonia. The visit begins with the lamphouse, the winch room and finally, through the well, a long tunnel retraces a reconstruction of the mining subsoil environments. The route ends through tunnels set up with modern cultivation systems that use large machinery, still used today in active coal mines, such as Nuraxi Figus.
Overall, the historical and anthropological archive of the mining town will be set up, as well as the Paleontological and Speleological Museum “E.A. Martel “in the pavilion of the former workshops and finally the Research Center for the development of clean energy technologies born from a partnership between the municipal administration and Sotacarbo SpA. Bookshop, bar and conference room are the pluses of the complex, around which work is still underway for the recovery of the buildings of the former workshops for the preparation of new accommodation and dining facilities.
Centro Italiano della Cultura del Carbone Loc. Grande Miniera di Serbariu, 09013 Carbonia (CI) Telefono e fax uffici 0039 0781 670591 – Telefono biglietteria 0039 0781 62727
Serbarìu, the interest in coal in an area of Sulcis
Serbariu (Carbonia): the interest exercised by the coal basin of this portion of the Sulcis during the fascist period led to the birth of the city of Carbonia, inaugurated by Benito Mussolini himself on 18 December 1938. It is the most important example of a planned mining center in all of Italy. The economy of the area revolved around the exploitation of coal mines: in addition to Serbariu, the previous ones of Nuraxi Figus, Seruci and Cortoghiana (in all they employed just under fifteen thousand miners) should be mentioned.
Community restrictions, a few decades ago, decreed the end of this sector: Sardinian coal has a high percentage of sulfur compounds, which are considered highly polluting. The castles of the extraction wells and the coal loading plant have now become nostalgic symbols of that period, which in recent times has produced large pockets of unemployment.
