Trabia Tallarita Sulphur Mine Museum

The museum is at the site of the Trabia Tallarita sulphur mine, about 7km west of Riesi on the Strada Statale 190 towards Sommatino. Central Sicily was the most important region in Europe for production of sulphur from ancient times. Demand increased in the 19th century for the growing chemical industries. Trabia Tallarita mine was started in the 1830s and employed 3,000 people at its peak in 1920. It closed in 1975 and became a museum in 2010. The main displays are in the Palladio electrical power plant, which preserves three original diesel-powered generators by Franco Tossi. Interactive exhibitions include a reconstructed mine lift and objects associated with the mine such as railway wagons, helmets, lamps and mineral samples to explain the history of electricity and sulphur mining in Sicily. Other buildings have photographs about life in the mine and house temporary exhibitions and conferences. Nearby are headframes, a processing plant and the village created to support the mine.