Porto Flavia

Before 1924, ore from the Masua mine was carried by boat to Carloforte and loaded by hand onto ships, a slow and dangerous process. The engineer Cesare Vecelli designed a solution cut into the cliff: two tunnels stacked one above the other, six hundred metres long, with nine silos between them holding ten thousand tonnes, and a retractable conveyor arm that swung out of the cliff face to pour ore directly into a ship's hold. Loading a steamship, which at Carloforte had taken at least a week and in bad weather up to two months, now took about two days. He named it after his daughter. The gallery opening looks out at the Pan di Zucchero, a limestone stack rising 133 metres from the sea.

History

Until 1924 sailors from Carloforte carried the ore in wicker baskets on their shoulders to their boats, up to 30 tons a boat, and took it 30 kilometres to Carloforte, where loading a steamship took at least seven days and in bad weather up to two months. Cesare Vecelli's port of 1923 to 1924, named after his daughter Flavia, has two tunnels 600 metres long joined by nine reservoirs holding over 10,000 tonnes of ore (Wikipedia, Porto Flavia).

Highlights

• The cliff opening - a gallery mouth cut into a vertical sea cliff.
• The two tunnels - stacked passages with silos between them.
• The conveyor arm - the retractable loader that reached out to ships.
• The Pan di Zucchero - a 133-metre limestone stack offshore.

When to go

April to October; tours run at set times and must be booked, with reduced schedules in winter. It is cool inside. Allow about ninety minutes.

Before you go

Entry is only on a booked guided tour with fixed times. The tunnels are damp with some uneven ground. Helmets are issued and required.

Nearby

The Piscinas dunes lie north; Iglesias is inland.

Key facts