Molino Excelsior

It is a significant document of industrial archaeology, interesting both for the machinery still inside and for the early-twentieth-century architectural structure with decorative motifs in Liberty style.

The façade, with simple lines and marked only by the series of curved windows, is enriched by a segmental pediment, containing the sign MOLINO EXCELSIOR and a relief depicting the goddess Ceres on a cart drawn by an eagle, with the motto Industry crosses the mountains.

The mill, intended for grinding wheat, was founded in 1904 by Vincenzo Gervasi; the machinery in cast iron, larch and steel, supplied by the Italo-Swiss firm “F.lli Buhler”, which also designed the plant, was driven by a combustion gas engine.

The production cycle was active until the 1960s. In 1997 the mill was bought by the Municipal Administration of Valderice, which after having it suitably restored allocated it partly as a museum of itself, partly as premises for cultural activities and as the seat of the Pro Loco.