Veneto’s territory is full of pre-industrial architectures, which show how much the sense of duty is innate in the heart and in the culture of its inhabitants. In particular, Treviso’s area is not only full of water-powered factories, used for the production of paper, tucking for clothes, productions with trip hammers, and flour mills but also of old furnaces.
Extractive industry in Agordino
Charming locations and history of a past that relives in the memory
The small Valle Imperina, that opens up for a few kilometers to the South of Agordo, has been in the past centuries Veneto’s major mining sites. The extractive industry, documented for the first time in 1417, carried out without interruption until 1962. The most significant monument is undoubtedly the building with the ovens used for the melting and refinement of copper.
These are the symbols of a mining activity that lasted for more than five centuries that provoke a deep suggestion to the observer. Built on solid blocks made of greenschist, they seem to defy decades if not centuries. Historic and cultural significances and aesthetic values merge in what is considered without any doubt one of Veneto’s most remarkable industrial monuments.
Pagnano’s trip hammer
Pagnano’s trip hammer, an example of pre-industrial architecture
Pagnano, Asolo’s closest center, is situated at the confluence of the two torrents Muson and Erega. Thanks to the presence of water in the village, several watermills were built, and some of them still exist. Among them, Pagnano’s trip hammer, built in 1474.
The presence of this ancient building is very interesting, not only because it represents an example of industrial archaeology but also because it is a characteristic feature of Marca’s territory, due to the very large number of watermills (used for different functions) in the area. The recently restored Pagnano’s trip hammer, still has the original inner distribution: the trip hammer, the stone wheels, the wind-hydraulic system that blows air onto the forge and into the bellows.
The ancient dairy factory in Castelluccio d’Asolo
From breeding to dairy products, the ancient production of Morlacco cheese
The Premiata Latteria Sociale Cooperativa Lungo Muson was born in 1921, founded by 14 associates of the cooperative from Castelluccio d’Asolo and near villages with the original name of “Latteria Redenta”, with the purpose of producing dairy products. The first equipment purchased was a butter churn and a cream separator.
This dairy factory is situated close to the Muson torrent, whose mass flow is sufficient to move the main axle, which moved the mixers, butter churns and presses through bull wheels and transmission belts. With the help of these machines and the willingness of dozens of men and women, the old dairy factory produced butter, a half fat cheese called “bastard”, and the most known Morlacco cheese.
Typeface and printing museum
From rope to printing
The “Museo del Carattere e della Tipografia”, created by Tipoteca Italiana, a private foundation born in 1995 by the Antiga brothers, is located in the complex of the ex “Canapificio Veneto Antonini e Ceresa”.
The museum’s location is ideal to enhance and divulge stories and human and professional experiences related to the universe of typography: types made of wood and lead, the historical typographic machines, the equipment for fusion, and the production samples and types.
The halls and workshops of the Museum are named after outstanding personalities of the history of Italian typography, including the engraver Luigi Melchiori from Crespano del Grappa, one of the most famous designers of wooden characters.
The Cervara mill
An old flour production factory that works since 1300
Built during the Middle Ages, the Cevara mill, situated inside the Oasis of Santa Cristina, is one of the precious little mills that remain intact. Today seat of a museum, the old factory preserves inside the 19th Century machines, gears, and wheels. Thanks to the guided tour, it is possible to take part in a demonstration of how the cereal grinding process was carried out. Even children can understand how the movement of wheels pushed by water can move millstones situated inside the building. It is also possible to visit the beautiful Oasis of Sile, the premise of the Park, with its museum, the fish ponds, the platforms for animal sighting, and the reconstruction of the ancient river houses “casoni”.
