The Rossi Wool Mill Garden(1), called Jacquard, is an exceptional monument to industrial archaeology, as well as a splendid example of landscape architecture. It was commissioned by Alessandro Rossi from the Vicenza architect Antonio Caregaro Negrin, and created between 1859 and 1878 during the enlargement and restoration phase of the original productive plant situated along Via Pasubio, the old commercial road to Rovereto.
The garden, located opposite the ‘Francesco Rossi 1817’ Works and covering an area of about 5,000 square metres, was bought by the commissioner over a period of five years (1852-1857) to erect new factory buildings. The favourable position of the site, partly on flat land and partly on a slope, and the previous buildings (the eighteenth-century Tron-Rubini Wool Mill, later Rossi, the two corner houses and the sixteenth-century small Church of S. Rocco which rises up on the homonymous hill) have been skilfully inserted by the designer within the new architecture, sculptures, pathways, ornamental waterworks, undulating terrain and the conspicuous botanical patrimony, in order to create a highly meaningful whole.
The majestic Rossi Wool Mill is not only picturesquely crowned by the evocative scenographic composition(2) but it is also involved in the theatrical situation, and harmoniously inserted within the historical centre of the town by means of symbolic landscape links which pre-announces the extraordinary urban development of the New Workers’ Neighbourhood in Schio, the Alessandro Rossi’s Villa, Park and Model Farm in Santorso and the Industrial Village in Piovene Rocchette.
The project procedure followed by Caregaro Negrin is documented by drawings, water-colour paintings and land register maps, most of which are kept at the Lanerossi Historical Records office, presently Marzotto.
The valuable 1859 water-colour painting entitled ‘Map of the Garden(3) with annexed factories and drying structures forming part of the woollen cloth manufacturing works in Schio, owned by Mr Rossi’, is accompanied by a detailed explanatory note on the old and new structures, and offers the first clear evidence of this scenographic complex.
In fact, the location plan painted in polychrome distemper shows the arrangement of the garden which initially only covered the semi-flat area, whereas the hilly area was taken up by the wool mill wool-drying and cloth-spreading structures.
The boundary wall with the monumental entrance is documented both in the details of the 1859 project and in subsequent modifications, and also in relation to the two corner houses. This is a typical boundary wall constructed with stones, gravel from the torrent, terracotta and bare stone, materials which were used in various ways to create intense chromatic effects and elegant geometrical patterns, as can be seen in all parks and gardens designed by Caregaro Negrin.
The majestic carriage entrance, in line with the severe Tuscan door of the ‘Francesco Rossi 1817’ Works, highlights the close relationship between the factory and its garden, but the stylistic difference underlines the different cultural origins, or rather the desire to reconcile Classicism and Romanticism, tradition and innovation, which is typical of eclecticism.
This is the reason for the importance of the four robust octagonal pillars surmounted by lanterns, having an oriental appearance, which, in the respective project and period photographs, display the same emblems of Mercury (winged staffs), allegories of commerce and property, as those represented on the facing factory. The see-through wrought-iron railings(4) with floral patterns announce the delicate beauty of the garden, which was later to be appreciated from the outside thanks to the fact that the wall along Via Pasubio was lowered to reveal the bronze monument(5) of Alessandro Rossi (1899) by the Milanese sculptor Achille Alberti. The 1859 water-colour painting faithfully represents the composition of the greenery according to the theoretical principles described by Caregaro Negrin in his writings.
Various elements can be recognised: the undulating terrain, dominated by its rather elongated sinuous central part and separated by winding pathways; the shrubs placed individually or grouped together along the borders to define the views of different scenes and widen the spaces; the variegated flowers skilfully distributed among the flower-beds in front of the entrance portal and architectural structures; the ornamental waterworks which start from the drying terrace with the artificial waterfall crashing down among rocks and then twisting into a small stream which runs through the garden passing under small bridges until it disappears into the round basin situated in the foreground.
The demolition of the wool-drying structure (1863), which used to feed the waterfall together with the rain water, and the creation of a ravine between crags, rustic steps and water cascadesmark the beginning of the second project; this highlighted the system of grottoes characterised by stalactites and stalagmites, introduced by the Jappelli-style monumental ogival arch made of terracotta and semi-precious stone, in turn surmounted by the refined neo-Gothic balustrade, which are all well preserved to this day. The other polychrome(6) distemper plates referring to this first edition of the garden document the new eclectic-style façade created by Caregaro Negrin for the eighteenth-century Tron-Rubini Wool Mill, which was enlarged by Rossi between 1859 and 1862 in order to contain 100 Jacquard looms (this building was dedicated to the inventor, and in 1869 so was the facing theatre hall), as well as the wool storehouse, the greenhouse, the turret, the renovation of the corner house and small church, and the access portico to the steps of S. Rocco.
The Octagonal Turret(7) (1859) with a pagoda-like(8) roof was closely connected to the north-west end of the Jacquard Weaving Mill, and originally contained ‘the urinals’, as according to the custom of typical textile mills urine was used in wool processing.
The picturesque architecture resembling a dovecote tower - which is elevated on three storeys resting on a high masonry base and crowned by a zinc covering, profiled by an arabesque frame and characterised by two dragons and a flagpole - becomes a fundamental syntactic element between the factory, greenhouse and garden. Its purely aesthetic decorative function as a belvedere tower was confirmed in the year of 1878 when Alessandro Rossi decided to demolish the Jacquard Weaving Mill, which was partly replaced by new winding paths, small canals, undulating terrain and groves, and partly by a modest eclectic building(9) to be used as a Workers’ Shelter, as can be read in the garden enlargement project, dated and signed by Caregaro Negrin.
This last building, with the sinuous lines of its large arcades and the polychrome paintwork(10), created by the Belgian engineer E.L. Pergameni, who also collaborated with the architect on the New Workers’ Neighbourhood, re-instates at least in part the scenographic side role previously played by the Jacquard Weaving Mill. Moreover, it stands as a celebratory monument to the wool mill as it houses in a Lombard-style niche(11) the marble bust(12) of Francesco Rossi sculpted by F. Groggia, which was dedicated by the commissioner to his father in 1863 with the following words: "Francisco Rossi opificium strenue inchoanti MDCCCXVII Alexander filius prosecutus monimentum posuit MDCCCLXIII".
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