Between the end of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century, silk production closely tied to mulberry-growing, which synthesised the rural and industrial way of life witnessed a constellation of silk mills spring up throughout the lowlands outlined by the Leogra and other lesser water courses between Schio, S. Vito di Leguzzano, Malo, Marano, Isola Vicentina etc.
From the eighteenth century, silk production was promoted by the same landowners who favoured mulberry-growing and silk reeling in the home, and took charge of the silk mills, weaving mills and sale of the product. The first buildings used for this purpose were the shelters of the wealthy villas and those of the farmhouses. Each peasant family house became a ‘small workshop’ where it was mostly the women who raised the silkworms(1), looked after them throughout their various mutations, provided them with a spinning hut and renewed it, eliminated the rotten cocoons, immersed their hands in boiling water(2) to free the thread from the sericin and wound it on the reel by using a whirl. The construction of real factories(3) came with the industrial revolution and mainly with the use of steam energy, they were announced by terracotta chimneys, characterised by the numerous arched or rectangular windows with iron frames, and arranged in different structures which opened on to one or more courtyards facilitating the movement of the objects and the people within. The silk mills, which were initially built for silk reeling, were laid out horizontally on one or two stories, some even became spinning mills and in certain cases were built up on three or four storeys to house a weaving mill.
With the triumph of oriental silk and synthetic fibre the Val Leogra silk production progressively declined, causing the closure and frequently the disappearance of many important structures (buildings, machinery etc.), however evidence still remains in the conspicuous architecture predominantly found throughout the Schio-Malo-Marano area, recollections of the elderly, folk songs, proverbs and in everyday vocabulary.