He was the most important and fervent Italian industrialist during the second half of the Nineteenth Century; he was a Senator of the Realm, an expert on agrarian matters, a publicist and an outstanding politician. He was the son of the entrepreneur Francesco, the renowned founder of the Rossi Wool Mill in Schio, he completed his classical studies at the Episcopal Seminary in Vicenza, distinguished himself by his lively intellect and tenacity to such an extent that, having finished college at the age of seventeen, he was already able to dedicate himself to industrial activity and not only acquired experience at his father’s factory but also especially abroad. His frequent presence in the avant-garde cultural milieu, his experience as an ordinary factory worker and familiarity with the most advanced technology he encountered above all in England, Belgium and France, had made it possible for him to transform his factory into a far-reaching capitalistic enterprise, competitive on a European level, by the time he became Managing Director of the Rossi Wool Mill and married Maria Maraschin in 1845.
In 1849, he reconstructed the primitive textile plant in the Schio Wool Mill; he then applied the most modern production technology following the introduction of the steam engine, and gave the building a formal elegant neo-classical appearance.
Between 1852 and 1857, he incorporated other minor Schio wool mills in his company, and extended his property towards the hilly area of S. Rocco; in 1859 he commissioned his architect Antonio Caregaro Negrin to begin the construction of the famous late-romantic garden characterised by the manufacturing buildings of the Jacquard Weaving Mill, formerly the Tron-Rubini Wool Mill, and the wool warehouse which was converted into a theatre in 1869.
The Fabbrica Alta represents the rise of the Rossi name to a national level; it was built perpendicular to the previous factory in Via Pasubio by the Belgian architect Auguste Vivroux in 1862.
After the Veneto region was annexed to the Kingdom of Italy, Alessandro Rossi reinforced his position as leader of the wool manufacturing sector to such an extent that his wool mill was hailed as “the best and most perfect cloth factory in Italy” at the Paris Exhibition in 1867. During the same year, his famous booklet ‘On the art of wool craft in Italy and abroad’, which testified to his competence as an up-to-date entrepreneur, was published in Florence.
Subsequently, other trips, conferences, letters to Italian and foreign colleagues, various pamphlets and publications all placed him in the forefront in the contemporary debate which dealt not only with industrial problems but also agriculture, economy in general and politics.
The year 1873 marked the peak of the Rossi predominance, when the wool mill enterprise became the Rossi Wool Mill Joint-Stock Company, its capital was provided by the financial élite of Northern Italy and Alessandro Rossi, as Managing Director, had considerable administrative autonomy compared to the shareholders.
His concern about social issues as well as technical matters was such that he was considered as the most enlightened and modern paternalistic industrialist of his time. His construction of the workers’ neighbourhoods in Schio, Pievebelvicino, Torrebelvicino and Piovene Rocchette next to the textile factories along the Leogra and Astico Valleys between 1869 and 1890 can be seen in this light.
In particular the New Workers’ Neighbourhood in Schio was considered as a pioneering experience on a European level thanks to its plentiful functional services, the quality of the dwellings and conspicuous collection of monuments, as well as its close link with the town and the countryside.
The attention paid by Rossi to the education of the young is not only witnessed by the establishment of infant nurseries, nursery schools, primary schools, libraries and theatres within the workers’ neighbourhoods, but also by the setting up of the Technical School in Vicenza in 1878, later named the ‘Alessandro Rossi’ Industrial Technical Institute.
The construction of the Model Farm in Santorso (1882-84) as well as the Horticultural and Pomology College, the industrial greenhouses and houses for the head-farmers, inspired by the Belgian and German experience, is equally as relevant and significant.
He founded the Italian Wool Association in 1876, became its first President and was awarded the Cross of S. Maurizio and Lazzaro by King Vittorio Emanuele II.
After entrusting his sons with the management of his factories, Alessandro Rossi retired to his splendid villa in Santorso and devoted himself to study and conferences on national and European economic problems; which demonstrated the open-mindedness and extensive learning of an entrepreneur who managed to lay the basis for the initial industrial development of the North-East of Italy within the period of about forty years.