There is an Art Nouveau building, now surrounded by vegetation, testimony to the industrial past of the town of Seui. The Laveria which is located in the San Sebastiano area was part of the “Fundu ‘e Corongiu” coal basin. This structure built in 1916 and which came into operation in 1918 was used to “wash” the raw mineral transported from the deposit via a cableway, to then be loaded onto the carriages of the train headed to Arbatax.
The Laveria di Seui located near the Trenino Verde route, on the Mandas-Arbatax line, is an imposing building, a fundamental structure for the coal basin of “Fundu ‘e Corongiu”. The only one in Sardinia and among the few in Italy in which anthracite was extracted.
The Seui washery was built in 1916 by the Italian mining company of Monteponi, owner at the time of the concession for the extraction of the Seuese coal basin (the only anthracite mine in Sardinia and one of the few in Italy), and entered into function in 1918. Have you ever traveled the Mandas-Arbatax stretch with the Trenino Verde? You will surely have noticed the imposing Art Nouveau building that overlooks the railway line.
Anthracite, a type of coal with a high calorific value, was once “washed” in this structure. The mineral was extracted from the nearby “Fundu ‘e Corongiu” coal deposit in Seui. At the Laveria di San Sebastiano the coal arrived via cableway and, once “processed”, was stored in the silos. Subsequently loaded onto the train headed to Arbatax and then continuing the journey on the vaporettos headed to the ports of the Island and the Peninsula.
The building was built in 1916 by the Italian mining company of Monteponi, owner at the time of the concession for the extraction of the Seuese coal basin (the only anthracite coalfield in Sardinia and one of the few in Italy), and came into operation in 1918. Today the structure is in a complete state of abandonment, surrounded by thick vegetation. The roof made of asbestos sheets and the wooden floors have almost completely collapsed.
The laundry building is spread over three floors, for a total surface area of 1,408 m2. The building arranged in cascade, built in reinforced concrete, had the following destination in the processing of the mineral: on the third floor the crushing and classification, on the second floor enrichment section (sieve department), on the first floor enrichment section (flotation department and workshop ) and finally on the ground floor basin department, laundry water collection with masonry barrier.
Around and nearby there are other deteriorated structures, all originally fundamental to the functioning of the laundry’s work processes. The building was equipped with a Tosi steam engine which, via a dynamo, supplied electricity to the washery itself (lighting and systems) and to the mining sites. An important place for the industrial archeology of Sardinia, and for the memory of the mountain town, which deserves to be valorised.
Roberto Anedda’s photo gallery:
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
