Location

Ingurtosu is an outlying small village in the municipality of Arbus and was, together with Montevecchio, one of the most important mining centres in Sardinia.

His name comes from “su gurturgiu”, a griffon vulture which inhabited the skies of the area. Today Ingurtosu is a crumbling, half-deserted village but it was inhabited till the end of the 60’s and at one time almost 5,000 people lived there. It was the managerial centre of Ingurtosu and  nearby Gennamari mines which made up the mining area called the “Montevecchio Vein” where lead, zinc and silver were extracted. The mine began its activity in 1855 and reached its peak at the beginning of the twentieth century.

The first  crisis, with many workers made redundant, was in 1943. After the war activity resumed but decline had already begun and the mine was definitely closed in 1968.
In the mining village there is the Manager’s Building, called “The Castle”, built around 1870 in medieval style in imitation of a German building and located in a dominant position, the workers’ houses, the church, the company store, the post office, the cemetery and even a hospital.

Along the valley that links  the village to the sea a few old mine shafts can be found, among them the shaft called “Gal” which has been recently restored, and the imposing ruins of  the Brassey Washery, built in 1900 in a place called Naracauli.

The valley ends with the wonderful Dunes of Piscinas where the mineral was transported by a small railway, built in 1871, and then loaded onto cargo ships.
Today Ingurtosu is a monument of industrial archaeology and is part of a vast area that has been declared “UNESCO World’s Heritage Site” and part of the Historical and Natural Geo-Mining Park  of  Regione Sardegna.

excerpt from"http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingurtosu"