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Milos’ abandoned Sulfur Mine

Thiorichia Beach, Paliorema, Milos island, Western Cyclades / Southern Aegean Sea

By Desolation Road

October 16^th, 2020

Although this hollow of barren rocky land in the east coast of the island of Milos is dominated by an abandoned stone sulfur mining plant that rises to a height of 63 meters, its beach looks peaceful as it is smoothly bathed by the azure waters of the Aegean Sea. However, this tranquil place offers no indication of the sweat and pain experienced by those who worked in this mine until its closure in 1958.

Deep in the dark bowels of this land, the air was yellow, heavy and hot as the workers dug the earth and loaded the wagons. And on the surface, things weren't much better; the furnaces’ fumes from the pulverization of the minerals and their liquefaction by pressurized steam, covered everything with a permanently floating toxic yellow fog.

Everywhere in the factory, from the power plant, the machine shop, the carpentry and the material warehouses, to the administration premises, the dormitories, the kitchens and the restaurant, a thick layer of sulfur dust settled like a cloth.

The return of the approximately 300 workers to their families, to their village homes from every Saturday afternoon until every Monday morning, was their only opportunity not only to breathe fresh air, but often even to escape from very stressful situations.

On top of the fear of inhalation of chemicals and the possibility of an accident in the galleries, they often had to deal with long payment delays of their already low wages by their employers, the insecurity and sometimes the intensity of the strike and uprising that their problems of survival led them to after 1952. The machine gun set by the Gendarmerie at its outpost outside the factory in April 1956, for the fear of further uprisings, did not help them much either.

The only moments of peace for them during the working days were the hours spent in the canteen of this small self-sufficient society that had been created in a place very far and cut off from the capital Plaka or the port of Adamas, before leaving to rest in their dormitories.

And, as if all this were not enough, with the German invasion to Greece and the Occupation of the country (1941-'44), they had to work under the threat of the Nazi rifle, without pay, and under the watchful eye of the Wehrmacht soldiers from the German outpost facing them from the administration house on the hill south of the mine.

In this context, it sounds somewhat ironic that sulfur has been a symbol of physical and mental purification since the times of Ancient Greece, and that even today it is used in thermal baths to treat psychosomatic diseases, in addition to their use for agricultural production and the spraying of the vines.

Milos’ abandoned Sulfur Mine

Milos’ abandoned Sulfur Mine

The sulfur mine factory

Milos is the only area in Greece where large amounts of sulfur were discovered, and their exploitation began in the middle of the 19th century. Since 1862, that he mine passed into the hands of London banker Vassilios Melas, production has never reached satisfactory levels, as it was limited to just 600 tons per year. So the Greek state took control in 1862; the mine passed first to the Public and Municipal Works Company and then to the Hellenic Mining Company.

In the 1910s and 1920s, production fell, mainly due to the import of sulfur from Italy and the USA, but in 1928 the mine was acquired by the company "Milos Sulfur Mines SA", which built the factory that survives to this day, based on the principles of the modern industrial functionalism of the 1930s. The north side housed the factory and the south the accompanying buildings.

After the German takeover and then the withdrawal of Nazi troops from Greece in October 1944, the mine reopened for two years; but in 1946 it was closed again, and its 180 workers were laid off. It was reopened in 1952 by new entrepreneurs, who, however, soon began to find it difficult to settle their payroll on time.

By 1958, when the plant closed as sulfur became a by-product of much lower-cost oil refining, 125,000 tonnes of ore had been mined at the Milos sulfur mine. In the 1960s, a private company conducted alunite research at the site, until the gates were finally closed in 1969.

Crossing today the rough dirt road, up to the point where the abandoned mine lies, the small creek with its two hills is revealed as a canvas painted by the yellow, red and brown of sulfur and rust, next to the blue colors of the Aegean Sea.

On both sides of this industrial cemetery, the rusty sulfur transport facilities and the old accumulation craters, the ruined buildings made of alabaster from Kimolos, the broken beds and rotten offices in the interior of the buildings, the old tools and the abandoned mining galleries on the slope, are all left at the mercy of the sea’s winds and salt.

Milos’ abandoned Sulfur Mine

Milos’ abandoned Sulfur Mine

Milos’ abandoned Sulfur Mine

Milos’ abandoned Sulfur Mine

Milos’ abandoned Sulfur Mine

Milos’ abandoned Sulfur Mine

Milos’ abandoned Sulfur Mine

Visiting Milos’ Sulfur Mine

The road to the sulfur mine starts from the village of Zefyria, and the last part is only accessible by four-wheel drive vehicles. Otherwise, there is a parking space on a plateau about 200 meters away from the mine. Although the Greek state officially declared the mine an industrial monument in 2005, the facility has not been maintained. As a result, it is extremely dangerous to enter the buildings and galleries, as in addition to the possible collapse of buildings and the retreat of the ground, you are also at risk of fume inhalation.

Footnotes

Copyright © Desolation Road / Panos Diamantis

FootNotes

Copyright © Desolation Road / Panos Diamantis

© 2026 Desolation Road

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