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Ingurtosu

 Address: località Ingurtosu - 09031 Arbus (VS)

This village is located at the beginning of the valley of “Is animas” and borders with Punta Tintillonis, in the northern part, ending with the dunes of Piscinas, in the south.

Nowadays, is nearly inhabited but in the past it was the seat of one of the most important mines in Sardinia habitated by nearly 5000 people: it was the Office District of the mine of Ingurtosu and Gennamari where silver, zinc and lead were extracted. The first stopes started in 1853 by Luigi and Marco Calvo’s Società Mineralogica di Gennamari that was then bought in 1885 by a French Society. The stope and the population reached its maximum expansion at the beginning of the XX century when the property of the mines was given to the English Society Pertusola Limited.

At the beginning of the 50s, a period of crisis broke down ending with the enclosure of the mine in the 70s.

In Ingurtosu it is possible to visit the Palace of  Direction, also Called “the Castle”, built in 1870 in medieval style and located in a good watching point compared to the office workers and miners’ houses, the church, the shop, the post office and the hospital.

The Mine of Ingurtosu is one of the eight mining sites that are included in the Geological Mining Park of Sardinia officially recognized by Unesco in 1997 as the first park in the world net of Geoparks, established by UNESCO to protect and to enhance the technic and scientific, historic and environmental patrimony of this mining sites.