Rio Marina: the iron capital

In the territory of Rio Marina, from prehistory to the Neolithic, there is little documentation. However, there are significant testimonies of a Neolithic settlement.

There are no details about the beginning of the exploitation of the iron ore deposits. The Etruscans began exploiting the mines as early as the 8th century BC, and iron excavation was accompanied by intense metallurgical activity, of which the remains of numerous furnaces still remain.

The exploitation of the deposits continued during the Roman era, as did the metallurgical activity. The mines were exploited in the Middle Ages by the Pisans, who built a large enclosure for the accumulation of ore in the current area of Spiazzi. In the site, the first buildings serving the venario were constructed. The population continued to live in Rio Alto, where, until the mid-18th century, it was divided into three differentia: quarrymen, farmers, and sailors.

Then, the old hill village lost its third differentia, which moved to the sea, giving rise to the Rio Marina community, in what was then the Marina di Rio. The third differentia thus assumed a dominant role in the economic life of Rio.

The new village was essentially made up of sailors, shipowners, shipbuilders, forwarders, and caulkers. The quarrymen remained a subordinate minority, at least until the end of the 19th century. Here, on the scale of values, a sailor enjoyed more prestige than a miner, because the sea mattered more than the mine.

The Rio Marina maritime industry, which in terms of the men/ships ratio was comparable to that of Liguria, went into crisis with the advent of steam. Steamships replaced sailing ships. Steam vessels swept away the "windbags" from major routes, and gradually, the sailing ships of Rio Marina began to disappear: they were first relegated to small cabotage and later converted into barges for transporting ore.

This dramatic transformation is romantically described by our Luigi Berti in his novel "Tramonto sull'Elba".

The shipowners did not lose heart. Some left Elba and settled in the major Mediterranean ports (Genoa, Marseille, Barcelona), while those who remained shifted their interests from maritime affairs to mining: the extractive industry offered new opportunities for profit. Thus, they not only saved their fortunes but, in some cases, even managed to increase them.

Among the representatives of this elite, we remember Giuseppe Tonietti, an old shipowner and commander of his own vessels, who in 1888 became the lessee of the mines. The relationships between Tonietti – the old Giuseppe – and the workers mirrored those established by the seafarer with his crews: master and patron. His decisions were unquestionable.

The town of Rio Marina underwent profound transformations and changed its face: hundreds of men, with tools on their shoulders, passed through the streets of the fishing village, where over the years, the washers, canals, railways, and overpasses became one with the houses.

After the paternalistic-family period of the Tonietti (1899), the working masses became aware of their strength and their driving role. The community was marked by tensions and new phenomena that, in the great strikes of 1911, saw miners and sailors united. An alliance that has repeated itself until today.

Some say that here culture came from the sea, but it was forged in the iron mines.