The study of the textile factories in Schio and its surrounding area begins with the Conte Wool Mill (1757) because, over the centuries, it has kept its typical paleo-industrial layout merging the private areas (owner’s dwelling and romantic park) with the productive element (the factory) which combines the recent structure in reinforced concrete with the eighteenth and nineteenth-century establishment. The entire town-planning architectural structure is surrounded by a high rustic wall creating a well defined island in the historical town centre.

The history of the wool mill is closely tied to the origins of wool production in the Leogra Valley. Giovan Battista Conte, who was the owner, at first provided local craftsmen with raw material, then later became an entrepreneur himself. In 1757, his son Antonio took over the factory belonging to Giannantonio Donadelli and used part of the old edifice situated near the Maestra Canal. The company records(1) provide evidence(2) of the changes(3) made to the works from the time of the original construction to the present day. A drawing from 1784(4) for example also shows the layout of the establishment in relation to the adjacent Fogazzaro Wool Millwhich no longer exists: the two-storey house and factory beside the Canal, with the ground floor portico facing the sheds and shelters for processing the wool, the ‘brolo’ (orchard) in the foreground and the Fogazzaro property and boundary wall in the background.

From the beginning, the wool mill was equipped with all the main working process equipment for the production of ‘woollen cloth’: teaselling, cottonising, sponging, pressing, dyeing, washing, spreading (pinning), and maintained this set-up until the Napoleonic and Austrian periods, as recorded by the land register maps of 1813-1815 and 1836-1840.

Access to the building is from Via XX Settembre through a large gate opening into the courtyard; this is overlooked by an ancient building recognisable because of its traditional two-storey construction and picturesque façade which highlights the use of local materials with the two series of large closely-set rectangular windows framed with brickwork and enhanced with stone sills protruding from the rough surface of the wall.

In 1863, following the remarkable industrial impulse Alessandro Rossi produced in Schio, the first technological innovations were also introduced in this factory, including cylinder fullers, a vertical-axis Neville turbine etc.

Between 1866 and 1884 the works took on the definitive architectural appearance of a four-storey industrial building(5) with cast iron structural framework, and extended as far as Largo Fusinelle where it displayed an interesting façade(6) refined by the large lowered flat-arched windows with white ashlar stone and terracotta surrounds.

Inside(7), there is a great deal of evidence of early wool technology(8), and the Canal(9) can be seen where it swiftly flows past the Largo Fusinelle locks.

In 1898 the company purchased the adjacent Mengotti-Vanzo property, between Via XX Settembre and Via Pasubio, and demolished the neo-Gothic mansion to make room for the new weaving(10) and spinning(11) departments which were to be built by the engineer Carlo Letter in 1906(12) according to the most modern horizontal style. There is a very detailed report on this twofold undertaking(13) in the ‘Empirical Records of Architecture’, vol. I, dossier XII, December 1909, Turin. The engineer Letter also built the caretaker’s chalet, presently the owner’s, which is a short distance from the landlord’s house.

In 1929, the big reinforced concrete(14) and glass frame which among other things was intended to support the two large reservoirs placed on top, was built against the rear of the eighteenth-century wool mill.

by Bernardetta ricatti