The gypsum quarries and kilns

Chisel marks, blasting holes, millstones turned by donkeys, cableways: the industrial archaeology of a trade that ended in a few decades.

The story

Along the Aventino valley there are many traces of the way local people worked, processed and used gypsum. Within a few decades, however, changed social conditions and the use of other materials and techniques in building brought an old culture to an end.

The quarries

What remains of the gypsum trade are the quarries, in particular those around the great rock of the old settlement of Gessopalena, and the smaller ones at Sant'Agata, Taranta Peligna, Civitella Messer Raimondo, Lama dei Peligni and Pennapiedimonte. Here, even now, the cut rock shows the marks left by the chisels and the holes into which blasting powder was placed.

The kilns

Around the quarries are the kilns, of several kinds: from the oldest forms, made out of natural caves, to the more modern and productive ones with one or two shafts, built of brick and gypsum stone or of limestone blocks.

Even today the kilns hold the heavy millstones of stone — and, later, of concrete — that the donkeys turned to crush the fired gypsum; in the more recent kilns the remains of electric crushers can be seen. On the river Aventino the millstones of the watermills, driven by the current, often served to grind gypsum as well. In the final period, cableways ran down from the quarries, carrying the material to the collection and processing points.

The gypsum houses

Among the most telling traces of the “gypsum culture” are the old houses, standing alone or grouped in clusters, built entirely of gypsum. The most emblematic example of this culture is the rock-hewn settlement of Gessopalena: unique in Italy because it was dug and shaped out of the soft rock.