Discovering the Metalliferous Hills National Park

The Colline Metallifere National Park was established in 2002 and is located in the province of Grosseto. It extends for 108,000 hectares and embraces 7 municipalities: Follonica, Gavorrano, Massa Marittima, Montieri, Monterotondo Marittimo, Roccastrada and Scarlino. In this area, minerals have been extracted for almost 5000 years, that is from 3000 BC until the early 1990s. There are 34 mining sites in the park in addition to 42 geosites. There are mines of picea lignite, mines of silver and lead, mines of copper and mines of pyrite. Of great historical value are the medieval sites scattered around this territory where in the past minerals were extracted and worked as well as the ancient furnaces in which metals were transformed into artifacts. Follonica in particular is famous for the processing of cast iron which is an alloy obtained from the fusion of iron and coal. In the various municipalities of this area there are the so-called Gates of the Park, that is, small museums where you can learn more about the mining history of this corner of Italy.