Mineralogical Museum in Caltanissetta
The mineralogical and paleontological museum of the Caltanissetta Zolfara documents the mining activity of the ancient sulfur mines. br> In 1862, the engineer Sebastiano Mottura founded a mining school in Caltanissetta, which he directed between 1868 and 1875. Mottura collected samples of minerals from the gypsum-sulfur formation of central Sicily, which he donated in part to the school's educational museum-laboratory founded by him. The collection of the then museum-laboratory expanded considerably over the years thanks to a far-sighted policy of exchanging the pieces found in the mines and donations from Sicilian sulfur directors, former students of the Mottura Institute. This means that today the Nissen museum structure boasts a very varied collection, articulated and impressive in terms of the number and quality of the pieces on display.
The museum is housed in a structure adjacent to the school founded by Mottura himself, of which the museum has been a part of it for a long time.
In addition to the collection of important chalky-sulphurous minerals, rocks and rare fossils, the museum also preserves some period tools used in the life of mines, such as mining castles, wagons used for the transport of minerals, the “Gill” furnaces.
The scale reconstruction of a cross-section of the mine is particularly interesting, where it is possible to recognize the tunnels, the extraction shaft and the furnaces. The museum also preserves a rich series of geological maps of Sicily.
