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Description
The mining village is located to the south of the Formignano town. The village is on a 20 hectares field and comprehends buildings with a functional characterization (for mining activity and residential for mines employees) and melting plants: this made the entire village a complete production entity. The main group of buildings are lined along two parallel paths: one on a upper level on which residential buildings are mostly grouped, the other on a lower level where offices and workshops are lined, with a water pool in the middle. The two paths join together at both ends and are linked in the middle (near the water pool) by a brick-made staircase A path leads to the melting area and to the slag heaps that overlook the valley. Other buildings are located far from the village: the Montecatini main office near the main gate, a farmer house in valley bottom and the S. Barbara chapel (patron of firemen and miners), near the actual car park (that used to be the tennis court built by Montecatini ). The architectural value of the buildings is not high, but the village with functional and residential buildings is a quite unique layout for a mining site in Italy. Moreover, the landscape visible today still bears the evidence of the mining activity ( slag accumulation, modification of contours and eco-habitat): it's a landscape shaped both by nature and human beings and is essential part of the site. 

The mining site lies 1 km far from Formignano, a small village in the surrounding of Borello town in the borough of Cesena. The vein was 2 km long and 4-500 metres deep and belongs to a formation that is 15-20 km long and 1 km wide. Under the common name of Formignano, lies two mines and research fields: 'Busca-Montemauro' and 'Luzzena-Formignano' separated originally but communicating at a later stage through the expansion of underground tunnels and through a cableway connection. The first testified excavation took place in 1556. The exploitation of this deposit was extended in the 19th century during which the average production passed from few dozens to 7.000 tons per year. In the 19th century the mine had several managements: from 1801 the local entrepreneur Natale Dellamore, in 1823 the local aristocrat count Cisterni, together with French entrepreneurs in 1838. In 1843 the 'Nuova Societa' delle Miniere Zolfuree di Romagna' was established in Bologna to manage the mine and in 1855, as new financial investment was needed, the society underwent transformation becoming a joint-stock company, ('Societa' anonima delle Miniere Solfuree di Romagna'), one of the first established in the world. The company managed the mines of Perticara e Formignano and others until 1896, when it was winded up. The amount of money needed to keep up with technical improvement in order to be competitive with Sicilian sulphur lead to huge investments and often to financial failures. After an attempt of a cooperative management by a group of employees and miners, in 1899 the mine was sold to a new society, 'Societa' Anonima Miniere Solfuree Trezza-Albani di Romagna': at the beginning of the century there were in operation 44 Gill furnaces, very important for a modern activity, 3 'calcheroni' furnaces and one 'doppione'. In 1917 Montecatini company acquired all the mines in the area, closing in few years all but two, Formignano and Perticara, and invested in the improvement of the machinery and the buildings. In a Montecatini's report difficulties of extracting the mineral were listed: the veins were thin, maximum 2 m wide and randomly located in depth, thus obliging the expensive excavation of long tunnels and deep shafts. Apart from temporary closing in 1923 and, during II WW, in 1945-46, the mine worked as long as 1962 when it closed down: the sulphur vein was not exhausted, but it was not financially profitable to keep the mine in activity anymore. In 1962 there were 21 mine levels of excavation reaching a depth of 500 m and extending for 3 km, with 9 inclined shafts (comprising the main one, 560 m long and reaching the 11th level). The total production of the mine from 1861 to 1962 was 409.000 tons (the peak in 1912 with 8344 tons) and the average employment 250 miners (the maximum in 1910 with 441 miners).