5 shots of La Furnance Penna in Sampieri Sicily.

Welcome to the Basilica by the sea. This is not a Basilica though, not in a religious sense, maybe it could have been considered a Basilica to industry once. And the sea, well that is the Mediterranean as we are on the Southern East 'corner' of Sicily.

This is Fornace Penna as you can see is looks like a archaeological ruin, the type you see a fair amount of in Sicily. But this isn't from ancient Roman times, no this is from the early 1900's and is a industrial relic.

It is the ruins of an old Brick factory which was constructed between 1909 and 1912. The location might seem odd now, right on the beautiful coast not far from a stunning beach lined with beach clubs and hotels, but it made sense back in the day as the sea around this point in deep enough to dock ships, and one assume load them up with bricks.

So what happened, while after building for 3 years, of what must have been a pretty stunning building, it operated for just 12 years before being 'destroyed' by arson in 1925

It's Sicily, I don't want to cast aspersions but maybe, just maybe that arson might have been a criminal act which was a little bit organisations