Archaeological Museum of the Mining District

The Museum also hosts materials from the Bronze Age and the early Iron Age from the Raffaello Foresi collection and some Etruscan and Greek artefacts from the Buraccio necropolis. A peculiar characteristic of Elba is the length of time such historical artefacts were in use, linked both to the exploitation of territorial resources, and to the need to defend and rule a highly sought-after territory.

The underwater Roman finds at Cavo and Porto Azzurro bear witness to the importance of the routes that connected the mining district to the rest of the island (movement of goods and raw minerals for smelting in the plants) and to the continent (trade in agricultural products and semi-finished iron products).

Later, from the middle of the 1st century B.C., Elba and the other islands of the Archipelago became home to luxury residences for wealthy Romans. One of Elba’s three surviving maritime villas can be found at Capo Castello, the north-eastern tip of the island and the closest place to the mainland. The ruins, which were mentioned in antiquarian literature between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, are now hidden between the vegetation and modern buildings, but the Museum’s itinerary provides an up-to-date description of the recent excavations and the artefacts recovered.

The resumption of iron mining took place in the Middle Ages under the control of the Republic of Pisa, when the villages of Rio and Grassera were built near the mining area. The latter, destroyed in 1534 by a raid by the pirate Barbarossa and subsequently abandoned, has been the subject of recent archaeological research. Excavations have provided us with precious insights into the realities of living next to metallurgy workshops.

Exhibits from Grassera, the abandoned village, conclude the museum tour, but the story continues in the village of Rio, which welcomed the survivors from Grassera’s terrible pirate raid.