STAZZEMA - Twenty years ago the boys of the village down the hill overlooking the side of the channel followed the contention, and were getting into one of the wagons and hoppers rusty hunting for snakes and lizards. The brave braved the Deep. The network of underground caves Alta Versilia gave those great adventures and discoveries of 'summer: live metal droplets, crystals of cinnabar and miracles of plots woven red and silver quartz of a field abandoned. Reveries of mercury and precious minerals that are expected. Those same boys, in Levigliani, 300 souls nestled in the Apuan Alps in the town of Stazzema, surprised by flashes of the dark moon did not forget. "Ours is an ancient village of miners - Emiliano says Babb, President of Development and Future", the cooperative that runs guided tours of the mine site - In the last six months of the marble workers have added difficulty to the effort, giving up weekends and hours of rest, and without public funds have brought to light the mine 's Quicksilver, a new tourist route in addition to the Park of the Apuan Alps. " Here, at 870 meters 'altitude, the forces of nature have also created the abyss of' Cave of Corchia, one of the largest karst complex d 'Europe.
After many difficulties the mine ceased operations in 1970. He mentions for the first time in an act of the City of Pisa in 1153. Trucks, drills, track, picks and acetylene lamps. Two galleries illuminated for a total distance of 160 feet that leads in a remote universe, life and work of the miners played in the mannequins in old machinery and a 'iconography of the sacrifice renewed for centuries. A man pushes a car, another climbs a ladder with a basket full of stones. On the path of beams in chestnut.
"The mine is safe - says Babb - Engineers have put supports in metal, wooden beams to the left because we tell the story of the miners. It is said that the chestnut is a wood that sings. Creaked giving warnings of likely collapse. Hard life for people of few words, that in mine. As the quarry was worked by the piece, with bread and cheese ', climbing the long sloping tunnel from which the transport equipment fell on rough trails to' outside.
The field is one of the oldest 'Italy. He was never rich nor did Levigliani rich, but it is a planetary rarity: "It is for the presence of liquid mercury in its native state. Even in fields of Almaden (Spain), in which 'sailed 500 loads of mercury for the' extraction 's silver in South America, there are such high concentrations. In most crops, the metal was amended and divided the proceeds from cinnabar, an ore of mercury and sulfur disagreement shales of veins or blood is found in fire red crystal here. In the past it was used as a pigment for illuminated manuscripts, "says Andrea Dini, a researcher at 'school of geosciences at the National Research Council in Pisa.
"We were coming from small and thought to bring home treasures and matter for great stories. In fact they are originating from volcanic rocks 450 million years ago and that the land has pushed deep into the Miocene, during the formation of the Apennines, "says Emanuele Michelucci leviglianese that the raids in the creeks of the youth field has a life plan undertaking studies in geology at the University of Pisa. The mine is open every day from 9.50 to 18, tickets 6 €. It comes with a guide and a miner's helmet (info www.antrocorchia.it or 0584-778405). Now it searches Levigliani from the 'horizon to the beaches of Versilia. It is hoped that someone, someday, will be spared from the sun and decided to take a trip in the mountains.
Posted by Mario on Blacks Florence Republic (08/08/2009)
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