Museo della Vecchia Officina (Miniere di Calamita)

The Museo della Vecchia Officina occupies the former mechanical workshops of the Cantiere Vallone on Monte Calamita. Its reconstructed work spaces and mineral displays document the industrial and social history of Elba's iron mines.

Why it matters

The mines of Monte Calamita were worked from antiquity through the modern period. The museum preserves the everyday infrastructure of mining and records an industry that shaped the communities of Capoliveri and the surrounding district.

What to notice

The museum includes reconstructions of an infirmary, workshop and accounting office, using original objects and fittings. A restored hall presents minerals from the district, including magnetite, the ore associated with the name Monte Calamita. Industrial remains and the altered hillsides form part of the wider mining landscape.

Context and history

The Cantiere Vallone complex served the Calamita mining concession. Extraction ended in 1981, although deposits remained in the area. The former workshops were later adapted as a museum of industrial archaeology, now part of the Sistema Museale dell'Arcipelago Toscano.