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monterotondo-1The Biancanes

The Biancane Natural Park is located in Monterotondo Marittimo, in the Colline Metallifere area, in the upper Grosseto Maremma.

This park is famous for its white rocks, hence the name “biancane”, generated by hydrogen sulphide emissions which react in contact with the limestone, transforming it into gypsum.
It is one of the most important geothermal parks in Tuscany.

The nature park

The biancane of Monterotondo Marittimo are included in the Archaeological Technological Park of the Grosseto Metalliferous Hills.
It is a geothermal park located between the provinces of Grosseto and Pisa, a few minutes from Massa Marittima, near the town of Monterotondo Marittimo.
The park owes its name “biancane” to the presence of chalk formations created by the reaction between limestone rocks and hydrogen sulphide emissions.
Various geothermal events take place inside the park: geysers, bulicami, mofete and putizze.
The steam that comes out of the rocks has a temperature of about 100°C and is composed of hydrogen sulphide, carbon dioxide, methane, ammonia, boric acid, hydrogen and nitrogen.

The lakes :

Inside the Biancane Natural Park there are two lakes:

Lagone Cerchiaio, a lake of boric water already used by the Etruscans for therapeutic baths for the treatment of skin diseases, rheumatism, muscle, kidney and liver problems. In later times the lake was used for the first experiments for the extraction of boric acid by Uberto Francesco Hofer. The name “Cerchiaio” derives from the ancient tradition, which began in medieval times, of using the warm waters of this lake to bend chestnut wood for the hooping of barrels.
Natural lake, located in the southern part of the natural park, it is a crater fed by thermal waters. Water has a very high temperature, between 100 and 150°C.

To visit the park, follow the route that starts from Lagone del Cerchiaio, here you can also see the old wash houses made of octagonal bricks coming from the Vecchienne furnace and dating back to the 1930s. On the right, a small road leads to the old Enel plant. You then continue for a small climb uphill and begin to admire the first crystallizations of limestone, you arrive at the central square and from here you can see a characteristic terrace where the water flows from the Chiorba spring, once used for the deposit of encrusting agents. The path still continues between fumaroles and putizze, a surreal and evocative panorama! Below you can see a Lagone which over the centuries has created a large crater covered with gray earth.
Continuing you come across fumaroles, here the steam comes out between the cracks in the stones, many different colors from intense red to yellow ocher to blinding white, boiling waters with dense vapours, the muttering of the waters coming out of the ground and finally the vegetation that in the years it has adapted to the conditions, distorting its nature. Among the native species of this area, the brugo and the cork oak, both of the acidophilic family.

Geothermal wells:

Inside the Biancane Natural Park of Monterotondo Marittimo there are numerous geothermal wells used to channel high enthalpy steam. The steam is channeled towards the production of electricity.
In Monterotondo Marittimo, energy production from geothermal sources began in 1916, and a first production plant was built in 1918 near Lake Boracifero. The current ENEL plant dates back to 1958. The power plants located in the municipal area of Monterotondo Marittimo cover 70% of the energy needs of the province of Grosseto.

info

Via del Poggiarello 1 – Monterotondo Marittimo GR

+39 0566917039

free entry

Opening time

Always open

*Opening hours are indicative. For further information, contact the Monterotondo Marittimo info point.