The Cazzola Wool Mill is located at the north-west edge of the town, near the Leogra torrent, with one side resting against the Canal before this flows under Viale P. Maraschin, later reaching the Lanerossi area. It was founded in 1860 by the small entrepreneur Pietro Cazzola and
horizontally(1) extended by his son Luigi between the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century.
The oldest sections of the building are erected around the vast central courtyard, beyond these we can see the more recent ones built after the Second World War. The long two-storey
building(2) (1893-97) overlooking Via Dante and Via Riboli houses the company administration offices; these are illuminated by means of two series of wide rectangular
windows(3) protected by shutters and the large sloping saddle roof curving over the round
clock(4) above the main
entrance(5) which is embellished by the small charming wooden fretwork loggia, identical to that on the façade overlooking the courtyard.
The parts of the mill which are used as shops and warehouses are aired by the typical industrial-styled closely-set windows, highlighted by the chromatic play created by the alternation of stone walls and brickwork cornices and pilaster strips, and emphasised by the reflection of the
water(6) in the Canal where it surfaces among the surrounding greenery.
The courtyard is reached through the entrance hall pervaded with a nineteenth-century atmosphere and ennobled by the memorial tablets which commemorate the history of the wool mill and show allegoriesof wool craft; from here, the outside of the buildings used for the different phases of the production cycle still appears intact, as well as the system of
locks(7) and relative
turbine(8) room, the terrace of the finishing sector, originally used for wool drying, some stone washing tubs resting against the wall of the former dyeing plant, the old lofty brick
chimney(9), the
bell(10) which signalled the work shifts and the small charming garden with the bronze
bust(11) of Luigi Cazzola in the middle.
Moving round to the left-hand side, we can see the small stone-built
carpentry shop(12) with a saddle roof and wooden trusses, the electric sub-station, then the long low construction for the employees bicycles and in the middle the cabin holding all the fire-fighting equipment of the period.
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