MINIERA DI SAN GIOVANNI - GROTTA DI SANTA BARBARA

From the outside, the San Giovanni mine looks no different from the other mines in the Iglesiente. The deposits were already known to the Romans, who probed the subsoil in search of silver-bearing galena. The village of Norman was reserved for managers and employees, while the miners' houses were built around the Taylor square. The Pertusola company, which had won the concession, was owned by an English lord, hence the English names. Today's visitors, like the miners of yesteryear, climb into the waggons of a small electric train that plunges with a jolt into the subterranean darkness.

At the end of the journey, visitors take an elevator and a ramp that leads to a surprising cave. It was discovered in April 1952, when miners were digging a furnace. Suddenly, among the rocks, they spotted white calcite, dug in and opened up an exceptional cavern. Its white concretions, columns, dark crystals and arabesques of white calcite seem to defy the force of gravity. The most impressive stalagmites flirt openly with ceilings covered in tabular barite crystals. These lamellae of burgundy crystals are razor-sharp. For hundreds of years, this grotto has remained hidden in the heart of the rock. It was dedicated to Saint Barbara, patron saint of miners.