Greece’s Serifos mines are being preserved in a new digital history project that brings together photographs, documents, and first-hand memories from an industry that shaped the Cycladic island for generations.
“The Living History of the Serifos Mines,” created by the Friends of Serifos with funding from the Museum of Cycladic Art’s Cycladic Identity initiative, is designed to keep the island’s mining record accessible as surviving witnesses grow older.
The yearlong project produced a public digital archive with more than 250 photographs arranged in four themes, along with rare documents, historic press material and 10 oral testimonies from former miners and descendants of mining families.
A printed album was also created, while QR-coded panels at historic mining sites connect visitors to interviews and other records. Modern iron ore extraction began in 1870 and became more systematic from 1885. Production often reached about 200,000 tons a year, drawing workers from Serifos and elsewhere in Greece.
How Greece’s Serifos mines are being preserved through living memory
The archive also documents the 1916 miners’ strike at Mega Livadi, one of the defining events in the island’s labor history. Workers organized over hours, pay, safety, and harsh working conditions.
See how Greece’s Serifos mines are being preserved through oral histories, archival photographs and a new project documenting the island’s mining past. pic.twitter.com/dhiPgDBwDv
— Tom Marvolo Riddle (@tom_riddle2025) September 25, 2026
The confrontation on Aug. 21 turned deadly, leaving four striking miners and two gendarmes dead. Konstantinos Speras, a Serifos native who became active in Greece’s labor movement, was a leading figure in the strike.
The project’s historical records show that the dispute later resulted in recognition of an eight-hour underground workday and a 10-hour day for surface workers.
Project manager Katerina Papathoma said the effort was intended both to save the material and make the island’s history better known. “The fact is that even we who live here in Serifos do not really know this history,” she said.
Mining continued for decades after the strike. Friends of Serifos archive date the end of extraction to 1963, after which many workers left the industry or migrated.
Abandoned mining sites face a new preservation push
The project also connects the digital record to the surviving landscape at Mega Livadi and Koutalas, where rails, mine galleries, machinery and loading structures remain visible. The Municipality of Serifos has been pursuing plans for an open-air mining museum at Mega Livadi as part of a wider effort to protect the area.
Mayor Konstantinos Revintis said the remaining structures require conservation. “Everything that still exists here must be restored,” he said.
The digital project ran from Aug. 1, 2025, to July 27, 2026, according to Cycladic Identity. Its public presentation in September included discussions with miners and their descendants and a guided visit to Mega Livadi, tying the new archive directly to the places and people whose history it records.
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