Set among the ancient mountains of the Costa Verde, it is one of the oldest and most important mines in Sardinia.
Its operations began in 1848 and continued, through alternating phases, until 1991, when the last site finally shut down.
This is the legendary Montevecchio Mine.
In 1879, Lord Thomas Allnutt Brassey, a British entrepreneur and a key figure in the technological and organizational development of the site, arrived here.
Under his direction, Montevecchio became a model of efficiency and innovation, equipped with modern facilities and one of the most extensive networks of tunnels in Europe.
During its peak, from the late 19th century to the mid-20th, Montevecchio stood among the leading mining centers on the continent for the extraction of lead and zinc.
Thousands of workers from across Sardinia — and even from northern Italy — lived in this self-contained settlement, complete with workshops, schools, housing, and even a small hospital.
Today, walking through the Levante and Ponente yards, you can still read that industrial strength in the architecture itself: the ore-washing plants, extraction towers, warehouses, and the managers’ residences, all laid out with a precise, almost military order.
The 19th-century buildings and the iron machinery are not just relics — they are tangible witnesses of an era when working in the mines meant progress, but also hardship and daily risk.
The surrounding landscape has reclaimed its space, yet it hasn’t erased the past.
Vegetation now wraps around parts of the buildings, rusted rails cut through the red earth, and the remains of the structures rise like silhouettes against the hills.
There’s something undeniably cinematic about it all — a stark light, raw and unforgiving, that turns the mine into a near-western landscape, frozen in the moment when the last siren fell silent.
