The gypsum culture
The soft stone
A rock you can scratch with a fingernail, and which for centuries was house, street, church, oil mill, economy. Then in thirty years it was all over.
- 17 km
- Half a day
- Moderate
- 5 stops
Gypsum formed six million years ago, when the Mediterranean dried out. At Gessopalena they dug an entire village into it: the only one in Italy. This itinerary lines up the geology, the trade and what is left of it — including the quarries, with the chisel marks still visible.
17 km in all between the first stop and the last, by car, with stops on foot. Approximate distance.
The stops
-
The gypsum outcrops
Aventino Valley
How gypsum forms, why there is so much of it here, and why at Gessopalena the village is called “Pretalucente”.
-
The rock-hewn village of Gessopalena
Gessopalena
Houses, churches, stables and oil mills cut into the rock. The heart of the itinerary.
-
The Gypsum Museum
Gessopalena
It has no rooms of its own: they are the underground spaces of the village. The panels are only there to explain what you are looking at.
-
The gypsum quarries and kilns
Aventino Valley
The quarries around the rock, the kilns with one or two shafts, the millstones the donkeys turned.
-
La Morgia and “Orizzonti”
Gessopalena
The limestone crag that Samson is said to have carried on his shoulders, with Varotsos's glass closing its wound.
The stops in detail
5 places
Nature
The gypsum outcrops
Rocks formed when the Mediterranean dried out, six million years ago. Soft enough to dig a house into.
Aventino Valley
Discover
Architecture
The rock-hewn village of Gessopalena
Houses, churches, stables and oil mills cut straight into a mountain of gypsum. The only one of its kind in Italy. Razed to the ground on 4 December 1943.
Gessopalena
Discover
Museums
The Gypsum Museum
It has no rooms: they are the dug-out houses of the rock-hewn village. The panels are only there to explain what you are looking at.
Gessopalena
Discover
Archaeology
The gypsum quarries and kilns
Chisel marks, blasting holes, millstones turned by donkeys, cableways: the industrial archaeology of a trade that ended in a few decades.
Aventino Valley
Discover
Art
La Morgia and “Orizzonti”
A crag that legend says Samson carried here on his shoulders. In 1997 Costas Varotsos filled its wound with sheets of glass.
Gessopalena
Discover
