Floristella-Grottacalda Mining Park

Floristella is a town in Enna province in central Sicily near Lake Pergusa. Mining of pyrites for sulphur began in the area in the early eighteenth century and continued until the 1960s. A unique feature of the mines is the presence of Celestine, strontium sulphate, SrS04, which is used in sugar refining and the manufacture of fireworks, and sometimes has a distinctive blue colour. The mining park was designated by law in 1991 and  extends over 400 ha. Visitors to the park can see the remains of calcaroni, of various types of furnace that were used for processing pyrites. Several shaft mines remains with a variety of steel headstocks that still stand. It is possible to venture for short distances into some underground galleries and there are remains of numerous mineral railways. One particularly imposing building, now a shell, is a two-storey, 13 bays, neo-classical style, erected by the landowner Augustine Pennisi, incorporating a family home and a research centre for the mines. Child labour in the area was described by Luigi Pirandello (1867-1936) in his novel Ciaula discovers the Moon (1907).