Mining Museum — Montecatini Val di Cecina

Mines Museum

Mon­te­ca­ti­ni Val di Ceci­na (PI)

The mine of Mon­te­ca­ti­ni Val di Ceci­na is an ancient cop­per mine loca­ted about one km from the histo­ri­cal cen­ter. Remai­ned acti­ve until 1907 was during the nine­teenth cen­tu­ry the lar­ge­st cop­per mine in Euro­pe. Here was born the com­pa­ny Mon­te­ca­ti­ni, one of the lar­ge­st Euro­pean indu­stries, then mer­ged into the famous Mon­te­di­son.
For visi­tors, it is an oppor­tu­ni­ty for a fasci­na­ting jour­ney to learn about mining tech­ni­ques and the sto­ries of the miners. Today the visi­tor can admi­re the nine­teenth-cen­tu­ry struc­tu­res rela­ted to mining, the for­mer Lave­rie, part of the gal­le­ries that can be wal­ked, the for­mer offi­ces of the Mana­ge­ment.

THE MUSEUM IS OPEN ALL YEAR ROUND

Memorie dal Sottosuolo

Il 16 e 17 novem­bre e il 30 novem­bre e 1° dicem­bre si ter­rà pres­so la Sala Cal­de­rai del Museo del­le Minie­re di Mon­te­ca­ti­ni Val di Ceci­na, la secon­da edi­zio­ne del con­ve­gno scien­ti­fi­co, cul­tu­ra­le e divul­ga­ti­vo “Memo­rie dal Sot­to­suo­lo — La Minie­ra del­la Memo­ria”.

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Discover opening hours and buy tickets online

Gui­ded tours of the mining park and mine descent

Tic­ket onli­ne
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Festival culturale ed enogastronomico

A par­ti­re dal 29 set­tem­bre fino all’8 dicem­bre.

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Discover the educational activities for schools

Visi­te gui­da­te e labo­ra­to­ri didat­ti­ci rivol­ti alla scuo­la.

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Vuoi rima­ne­re sem­pre aggior­na­to sul­le atti­vi­tà ed even­ti del Museo del­le Minie­re? Iscri­vi­ti alla nostra nuo­va new­slet­ter! Potrai cono­sce­re in ante­pri­ma gli ora­ri di aper­tu­ra, i per­cor­si del­le visi­te gui­da­te e le ini­zia­ti­ve in pro­gram­ma.

CONTACTS

Mine Secre­ta­riat — Satur­day and Sun­day 10 a.m. — 1 p.m. / 3 p.m. — 7 p.m.
Iti­ne­ra Secre­ta­riat — Mon­day to Fri­day 9 a.m. — 1 p.m. / 3 p.m. — 6 p.m.

Pho­ne
Mine Secre­ta­riat
(+39) 0588 31026
Pho­ne
Iti­ne­ra Secre­ta­riat
(+39) 0586 894563

The visit itinerary

Museo delle miniere

Star­ting from the fir­st extrac­tion well of the 30s of the nine­teenth cen­tu­ry, we will go up to its sym­bol tower, the Alfre­do well with its 320 meters depth and its extrac­tion system with tubs still intact.

Museo delle Miiere

After pas­sing throu­gh the old car­pen­try we then enter the fasci­na­ting under­ground world and can explo­re a part of the main gal­le­ry also kno­wn as “bel­ly of the wha­le”.

Museo delle Miniere

After visi­ting the ex mana­ge­ment offi­ces and the labo­ra­to­ry for che­mi­cal ana­ly­ses, the gui­ded tour of the Mining Park will end out­doors in the pre­mi­ses of the ex-mine­ral washing plant.

Discenderia

It is also pos­si­ble to walk along the rou­te of the Mine Descent, the access tun­nel to the mine’s under­ground, on defi­ned days and times: a 200 small steps rou­te that rea­ches a depth of about 100 metres.

Types of guided tours

Guided tour of the Mining Park

Alfre­do Shaft, gal­le­ry and ex work­shops. Dura­tion of the gui­ded tour is appro­xi­ma­te­ly 1 hour and 15 minu­tes.
The rou­te does not pre­sent any par­ti­cu­lar dif­fi­cul­ties. Sui­ta­ble for all adul­ts and chil­dren of at lea­st 4 years of age. It is com­pul­so­ry to wear clo­sed shoes and to bring some­thing to cover one­self when wal­king throu­gh the gal­le­ry. The­re are stairs along the rou­te. Small dogs may enter but must be held during the gal­le­ry tour.

Guided tour of the Mining Park and Mine Descent

Alfre­do Shaft, gal­le­ry, ex work­shops and mine descent. Dura­tion of gui­ded tour is appro­xi­ma­te­ly two hours.
For up to 8 peo­ple.
In addi­tion to visi­ting the Mining Park the iti­ne­ra­ry inclu­des a descent via, a stair­ca­se to a depth of about 100 metres (mine descent). The rou­te is not acces­si­ble to per­sons with redu­ced mobi­li­ty or tho­se una­ble to move inde­pen­den­tly; it is only acces­si­ble to chil­dren aged 12 and over if accom­pa­nied by at lea­st one adult. It is man­da­to­ry to wear trek­king shoes and to bring some­thing to cover one­self for wal­king throu­gh the gal­le­ry. Ani­mals are not allo­wed.

Guided tour of the Mining Park, Wind Farm, Muraglione Dam and Oratory of Santa Barbara

Dura­tion of the gui­ded tour about three and a half hours.

Iti­ne­ra­ry of histo­ri­cal-natu­ra­li­stic inte­re­st. During the rou­te it will be pos­si­ble to obser­ve both the fir­st public-owned wind farm pla­ced on the hills over­loo­king the mine at an alti­tu­de of about 600 meters and the Mura­glio­ne dam, a com­plex for dam­ming the water neces­sa­ry for washing the extrac­ted mine­ral, reo­pe­ned to the public sin­ce April 2023 and set in a beau­ti­ful natu­ral habi­tat. The iti­ne­ra­ry also inclu­des a visit to the Ora­to­ry of San­ta Bar­ba­ra, of which the ear­lie­st records date back to 1660 dedi­ca­ted to the cult of the Mado­na of Capor­cia­no. Rebuilt in 1789, in 1842 the ora­to­ry was dedi­ca­ted to the patron saint of miners, San­ta Bar­ba­ra. Insi­de is the pain­ting of Our Lady of Gua­da­lu­pe, a valua­ble work by Mexi­can pain­ter Juan Rodrí­guez Xuá­rez.
Gui­ded tour by reser­va­tion only for groups of mini­mum 20 par­ti­ci­pan­ts.
Con­tact the museum. Cost Adul­ts € 15.00 — Chil­dren 6 to 12 years old € 10.00

4,6/5
  • We spent a very inte­re­sting day, the gui­de was very very pre­pa­red and explai­ned eve­ry­thing to us. We will be back next year.

  • Very inte­re­sting pla­ce and pre­pa­red and enga­ging gui­de. Wil­ling to move a boo­king to the last.

  • Beau­ti­ful pla­ce and won­der­ful land­sca­pe.

  • Beau­ti­ful expe­rien­ce. The mine is a glimp­se of the past that is real­ly worth seeing. The staff are very friend­ly and show a great pas­sion for what they do. Exter­nal visit but abo­ve all visit also insi­de the mine exca­va­tions. Very nice.

  • A jour­ney throu­gh time to disco­ver hard work accom­pa­nied by a trai­ned and enga­ging gui­de. Highly recom­men­ded for adul­ts and chil­dren.

  • Must see, highly recom­mend! A uni­que expe­rien­ce. Excur­sion sui­ta­ble for adul­ts and chil­dren.

  • A sug­ge­sti­ve pla­ce nestled in the hills of the upper Ceci­na val­ley. The gal­le­ries and the district are well pre­ser­ved and main­tai­ned. Per­fect for chil­dren and fami­lies.

  • I recom­mend you to go and see the museum and the mine, two hours in the com­pa­ny of the gui­de Andrea explains very well.

  • Beau­ti­ful. Very good gui­de.

  • Here we under­stand that human inge­nui­ty has no limi­ts if it wan­ts to. The gui­de is very pre­pa­red. Cer­tain­ly inte­re­sting for chil­dren too.

  • Sun­day mor­ning spent in excel­lent com­pa­ny immer­sed in histo­ry bet­ween the ear­ly nine­teenth and ear­ly twen­tieth cen­tu­ries: pre­pa­red gui­de, you would stay hours liste­ning to her. Subli­me land­sca­pe, to go back abso­lu­te­ly.

  • Defi­ni­te­ly a pla­ce to visit. Rich in histo­ry and well explai­ned by kno­w­led­gea­ble staff.

  • Beau­ti­ful visit for adul­ts and chil­dren. It lasts about an hour mostly out­doors and for a short distan­ce in the tun­nel. Our gui­de Marian­ge­la was com­pe­tent on the mine and on the ter­ri­to­ry and also very nice. Recom­men­ded.