Rise and decline of the quarries on the San Giacomo and Capenardo mountains

The quarries of Monte San Giacomo and Monte Capenardo

In the area of the ancient lavagna quarries, Mount San Giacomo is usually the main reference. However, the highest peak of the hilly-mountainous group is Mount Capenardo, which reaches 693 meters and is the eastward continuation of Mount San Giacomo.

Mining and Development

The quarries were opened preferentially in the mid-mountain area, where experience indicated the presence of the best slate veins. However, during the nineteenth century, the growing difficulty in finding intact portions of useful bench in the median strip of the reliefs forced the extractors to also exploit the slate located at high altitude. The old quarries in the midmountain were starting to run out or had long been abandoned, making research in new areas necessary.

Main centre: Cogorno

Cogorno was the main center of slate activity. In 1834, and on average for the entire century, this locality was home to around 1,800 inhabitants, a third of whom were employed in the production or transport of blackboards. Over 4,000 inhabitants lived in the entire San Giacomo area, which also included the parishes of Breccanecca, Chiappa and Santa Giulia, of which around 800 worked in the slate industry.

Working Conditions and Social Implications

The slate industry involved harsh working conditions, which was reflected in the high mortality rate among quarrymen. Occupational diseases, such as silicosis and silico-tuberculosis, were common and often led to death at a young age. This high mortality rate contributed to a notable percentage of widows in the local population.

The analysis of the demographic data of the time clearly highlights the social and health impact of the slate industry on Cogorno and on the other communities of Mount San Giacomo and Mount Capenardo. The history of these quarries reflects a combination of technological adaptation, geological challenges and profound social implications for the communities involved.

The Decline of the Slate of Monte San Giacomo and Monte Capenardo

In the last thirty years of the nineteenth century, the extraction basin of Mount San Giacomo entered a period of decline. This decline was determined by various factors:

Exhaustion of the Slate Layers: The progressive exhaustion of the available slate layers made extraction increasingly difficult and expensive.
Difficulties in Cultivating Deep and Flooded Quarries: Shallow, dry quarries were now rare, forcing workers to operate in difficult and dangerous conditions in the deeper and often flooded quarries.
Traditionalist and Pre-capitalist Character of Mining Activity: The lack of technological and organizational innovations limited the efficiency and productivity of mining operations.
Expensive Probing and Drainage Work: The need to carry out prospecting, drainage and tracing work increased the costs of mining.
Absence of Exact Topographical Plans: The lack of topographic plans documenting the old quarries made the resumption of extractive activity risky. Abandoned quarries were often filled with debris, flooded and inaccessible due to collapses.

Consequences of Decline

End of the Quarryman’s Trade: Over the course of about forty years, the quarryman’s trade disappeared completely.

Relocation of Commercial and Processing Activities: Lavagna managed to resist the crisis better than Cogorno, maintaining its function as a maritime and railway port. However, the commercial and manufacturing activity gradually moved to Fontanabuona, near the most recent and modern quarries.

Return to Agriculture: The quarrymen of Mount San Giacomo returned to agricultural activity one after the other.

Depopulation and Ruin of the “Underground Country”: The quarries and the towns that grew up around them became depopulated and fell into ruin. The quarries collapsed and flooded, while vegetation and landslides obscured the entrances.

Massive Emigration: In the municipality of Cogorno, emigration towards foreign countries increased significantly in the period 1882-1901, with a migratory deficit of over twelve hundred units out of an average population of approximately three thousand six hundred souls. This phenomenon continued into the first half of the twentieth century, leading to a constant demographic decline. In 1951, the population of Cogorno was just over two thousand six hundred units, compared to almost four thousand people a century earlier.

The decline of the Mount San Giacomo extraction basin represents an example of how the depletion of natural resources, combined with the lack of technological and organizational innovations, can lead to the collapse of an industry and the socio-economic transformation of an entire community .

Sources

Beniscelli G., “Ardesia: pietra di Liguria”, Genova, SIAG, 1972

Porcella M., “Gli uomini dell’ardesia”, in Centro di Documentazione della Civica Biblioteca di San Colombiano Certenoli (a c. di), “L’ardesia della Fontanabuona e le sculture di Pietro Burzi”, Chiavari, Grafica Piemme, 2017, collana “Quaderni del Lascito Cuneo”

Savioli L., “Tradizione e storia della lavagna”, in Mannoni T. (a c. di), “Ardesia. Materia, Cultura, Futuro”, Genova, Sagep Editrice, 1995

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