- Active & Green
Paglio Pignolino Mine
Comune di Dossena (BG)
Along Via Mercatorum, in Val Parina, there is a very rich and diverse mining and quarrying area: from zinc, lead and calamine, fluorite, sphalerite and galena to the extraction of the precious Arabescato Orobico marble quarry.
This area even aroused the interest of Leonardo da Vinci himself who,
in the early 1500s, drew the first maps of Valle Brembana and Valle Seriana.
Tracing the history back to the mid-1950s, fluorspar was being mined and sent in large quantities to America, where it was used as one of the main fuel components by NASA for lunar missions.
The first part of the mine consists of the large access gallery on the Sandri level and the terminal hall, which have been cleaned and equipped with fixed lighting by the volunteers of the Dossena Mines Association, who will illustrate the work of extracting and transporting the ore.
And a second part, usually not open to the public, where the Speleo Orobici will illustrate the karst phenomenon by showing the entrances and natural shafts intersected by the artificial galleries.