Geological Museum Ex Cava Monticino

From an old gypsum quarry abandoned for almost 15 years, in 2006, the open-air Geological Museum was born.
Near the sanctuary of Monticino, at the eastern end of the Parco della Vena del Gesso Romagnola and close to the village of Brisighella, the extraction of chalky stone lasted for more than seventy years, ending at the end of the 80s of the last century.

Since the mid-70s the Monticino quarry has become a privileged place for the study of evaporitic rocks such as gypsum and scientific interest reached its peak with the discovery – in 1985 – of the remains Fossil of a very varied fauna rich in continental vertebrates (rhinos, monkeys, hyenas, antelopes, crocodiles, etc. ..), lived about 5 and a half million years ago.

This area thus enhances a paleontological site of European importance and one of the most spectacular angular discrepancies – between chalky banks and deposits above – of the northern Apennines. The open-air museum also includes a small blind valley with its sinkhole and cave (the Fox’s Lair), as well as various testimonies of the centuries-old history that binds man to the glittering chalky stone.