Pozzo Sella – Gothic Industrial Gem & A Mining Past

Pozzo Sella, stepping into an industrial past, with hidden gems and items you’d not expect to find in a workshop. An elaborate cast iron staircase and a surprising timepiece, spectacular and sophisticated windows. Elements and pieces that would look more at home in a grand building or a town hall – not among pumps, metals and ‘dirty’ industry

Pozzo Sella is a building of the Monteponi Mine (see ‘facts & particulars’ below for more details and links) which sits on the outskirts of the town of Iglesias in the South-West corner of Sardinia. 

As any large mine, Monteponi also consisted of many workshops, buildings and different sites. One of these is Pozzo Sella, originally built to house two large steam pumps, engines and boilers (see more details in Facts & Particulars below). 

• 

• 

It was built between 1872-1874 and the external architecture shows grandeur and style perfectly fitting to this time. 

Disappointing Pumps And A Refurbish

However, the pumps did not produce desired results and the whole pumping operation ended in 1889. The Pozzo Sella building was then refurbished to house the ‘technology services’ of the mine: mechanical workshop, forges and carpentry. The workshop on one side and the forge on the other (and the carpentry in the middle).

This is how it remained in use until the last worker hung up his cap and left his little locker on the wall more than 100 years later. It’s like they left everything, expecting to come back tomorrow, but they never did. 

• 

• 

Thus the workshop remained, closed for years. Untouched by anybody until some enthusiastic souls started to work on opening this gem as it had been left by the workers (there are a few very, very special items in this building).

A Touch Of Steampunk and Industrial Beauties

This summer and autumn this treasure of an industrial antiquity was open to the public, and you could step back in time to something that is now a curious place and an industrial museum. It also resembles a time of gothic steam engines. Steampunk style for those who are familiar with that term. Science fiction that incorporates technology and aesthetic designs inspired by 19th-century industrial steam-powered machinery.

When you enter at the side of the building you step into the mechanical workshop. A large room complete with trolley hoists in the ceiling, long chains, shackles and hooks hanging down. Large lathes, milling and drilling machines, grinding machines and presses. Everything you needed to work metal.

‘Naked Ladies’ Of The Past

On the back wall there are many, small lockers or cupboards. Some with screws, nuts and bolts, different bottles, cans, tins and boxes. All the bits and bobs you might need. On the back of some of the locker doors, somebody had hung up the customary workshop ‘naked lady’ photos of the past, now crumbled and faded by the passing time.

On the opposite wall there are large arch windows, flooding the room with natural light. 

The workshop has a faint smell of grease, oil and lubricants, of old steel and dusty metals.  For me, the former mechanical engineer, it’s a smell of comfort and ‘home’. 

Amazed By A Cast Iron Staircase

Towards the centre wall (in the middle of the building) stands one of the prime treasures of this place. A tall spiral cast iron staircase. Totally out of place in a ‘dirty’ workshop, but also totally fitting with the gothic, industrial surroundings it stands in.

The staircase captivates with amazingly beautiful details and intricate features, not what you expect for a workshop. It has narrow steps and only one person can ascend/descend at a time. It compels you to walk up and down with care and attention.

• 

• 

It’s an item that makes you wonder what on Earth it is doing there, this piece alone is worth the visit to Pozzo Sella. 

The Carpentry

The staircase leads to the upper floor of the centre part of the building, where the carpentry was housed. Today it is hard to imagine that workers had to run up and down these narrow, winding stairs with what sometimes surely must have been tools and/or loads of timber, wood and planks.

I wonder if they sometimes took the time to admire the intricate elegance of the stairs they were using.

A Century Old Timepiece

Up on this floor there’s another, and much more plain, set of stairs where you can reach the attic and the home of another curious piece of industrial elegance. The Pozzo Sella clock with the original mechanical gear, clockwork and chime. The clock and its chime marked, for nearly a century, the beat of life of the workers, miners and their families. 

This and the fact that it looks like something out of a costume drama or indeed, according to my friend Francy; the clock from the movie ‘Back to the Future’, makes this a remarkable piece of history.

Rooms With Views

Even the windows up here are special. All around the other three walls there are large, circular windows with glazing bars, a work of art in the attic too.

I leave feeling honoured to have seen this gem that’s been hidden for everybody apart from those who worked here. The mechanical engineer in me is happy it’s had a trip back to a beloved environment with whiffs of metal, grease and oil complete with chain hoists and trolleys in the ceiling. In addition to a trip into Steampunk territory and industrial history.

• 

• 

• 

But even for those who have no affinities towards oil, steel or industrial items it is well worth a visit just for its remarkable staircase and extraordinary clock – those two alone makes a tour here rewarding.

Or indeed the special attic windows with a view towards all corners of the surrounding area. You can see the rolling hills and even the turquoise Sardinian sea in the distant. 

I Take My Hat Off

PS: Without the energy and enthusiasm of a few people it would never have been open for us to see this remarkable place. 

It is an issue for too many of the historical buildings and sites from this area’s mining past. Too little money and too little interest from those in political circles high enough to implement a change. It is a sad sight to see all these glorious, neoclassical buildings just slowly crumbling down. In some years it will be too late for many of them. 

I really take my hat off to those enthusiastic people who use their free time, money and energy to preserve as much and as well as they can. 

As a visitor and/or tourist – see these things NOW, before it is lost.

Lots of love,

Bee

⚓️

Facts & Particulars:

The Monteponi mine was one of the largest lead, zinc and silver mines on Sardinia, and indeed in Italy and Europe

It was known and used by the Romans, however, the first official record of the Monteponi mine was in 1324 and it remained a working mine until it finally closed  in 1992. 

The Monteponi Company (founded 1850) took the mine into the great success it became. There was prosperity and growth and development of tunnels and galleries, workshops, foundries and a railway station. Washeries, residential buildings, chemical plants, forges, carpentry, and others. The mining complex is large and includes many buildings over a widespread area.

New buildings of that time were beautiful examples of neoclassical architecture, with an eye for beautiful details (as seen really well in Pozzo Sella)

Big, Heavy Pumps

Pozzo Sella is one of the buildings in the main complex. It was originally built to house two large Belgian steam pumps with a power of 500hp, a weight of 600 tonnes and with a flow rate of 150 l/s. They were installed in an attempt at draining out subsurface water which was a problem for how deep they could mine. (See more details in this post from Velasquez Logbooks about Pozzo Baccarini and the subsurface tunnel to drain water)

The pumps were transported from Cagliari harbour to Monteponi. On the 16th June 1874 the Director, Adolfo Pellegrini, wrote to the Society Direction in Torino: “The cart built for the occasion was pulled by 20 oxen and pushed by 40 miners and this morning made the Monteponi hill without problems, while the railroad wagon was broken at the bottom…”

When this pumping adventure failed, the building took on the role of housing the forge, the carpentry and the mechanical workshop.

Opening Times and Links

The opening of Pozzo Sella to the public is quite new and to my knowledge no specific opening times exist. This year Pozzo Sella was open over some weekends over the summer and autumn. 

The best place to find more information about opening times is on the page of the association of Pozzo Sella www.associazionepozzosella.org and on their their Facebook page . They also offer tours in English.

Thank you to Francy Contini for helping me with photos and historical facts

Other things to see or do close by: Fontanamare beach & Iglesias Cat Cafè