The Tanneries are a symbol of proto-industrial archaeology in Sardinia. Bosa’s tanning tradition dates back to ancient Rome. Rediscovered in the seventeenth century, it grew to become a thriving business from the second half of the nineteenth century through the first half of the twentieth century.
Some buildings still stand along the left bank of the Temo near the Ponte Vecchio; the terraced alignment of factories constitutes one of Bosa’s most famous images. Known as Sas Conzas (the conce) they came to count up to 30 active factories in the Golden Age. Progressively, the activity was reduced and then ceased in the second part of the 20th century due to the unhealthiness of the production process and the miasmas produced by the processing, which were now incompatible with the new tourist vocation of the city. The two-story buildings, constructed of red trachyte, have been converted in recent decades to house businesses and housing.
The Conce Museum was built in one of the best-preserved buildings dating back to the 1700s. On the ground floor are the well, the press, and the vats where the hides were soaked. The stages of tanning, coloring and washing on the second floor, while on the upper floor the finishing stage from which sole and cowhide, required by Cagliari’s bookbinders, were obtained.
The itinerary shows processing techniques. The visitor can walk on the glass surface covering the original tanks and identify with the hard daily toil of the workers immersed in water and lime, intent on manipulating the fresh hides to obtain the very high quality productions that made, for almost a century, the town of Bosa the capital of tanneries in Italy, appreciated and sold in the Peninsula and abroad.
