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Costa Jels Mine
Comune di Gorno (BG)
Gorno's zinc mines were already known and cultivated in Roman times, when the reddish mineral known today as calamine was broken up and fired and combined with copper. It formed then what the ancients called 'auricalcum', which is none other than our brass.
Mining continued until 1982, the year of closure.
There are still some 230 kilometres of tunnels, passages and caves stretching underground.
Here you can take a very interesting guided tour of the surface and underground mining sites, lasting about an hour and a half, where you can relive the mining process in the mine.
Protagonist of the site was also 'black marble', which was also used in the construction of the parish church in the 18th century. (later demolished in 1930).
Until the mid-19th century, the quarries were so important that the stone was also exported abroad.