AO Edited
Villaggio Minerario Asproni
A former mining village that now operates as an open-air museum.
Near the village, there is this curious building, built in 1870. Inside it there was a steam plant, to lift the lead and silver minerals from the galleries below the ground. The miners nicknamed it "Sa Macchina Beccia" (The old machine, in Sardinian language). The plant stopped working in 1940.
Asproni Mine Village was a place where mine workers of Serra Moddizzis lived from the end of the 18th to the half of the 19th-century.
The mine was founded by Giorgio Asproni (1841-1936), and was a fully operational village, with all the services of a small town. The town included an elementary school for miners’ children, a post office, church, grocery store, a little hospital, and more.
Asproni and his family lived here despite the relatively short distance from the nearest important town, Iglesias. The last people lived in the town around the 1960s. The once-booming town was abandoned not long after.
Know Before You Go
People can visit the village for free, or with a local guide for 5 € each.
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