Crespi d'Adda

Crespi d'Adda is a nineteenth-century model worker’s village in Italy, a frazione of the comune of Capriate San Gervasio, province of Bergamo ( Lombardy) on the left bank of the river Adda. Since 1995 it has been on UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites.

It is certainly the most interesting example in Italy of the phenomenon of workers' villages. It has been perfectly preserved (in particular its urban layout and its architectural appearance are still unchanged) and it constituted one of the more complete and original realisations in the world.

Factory and village were built during the last quarter of the 19th century by the Crespi family (cotton manufacturers), who choose the banks of the river Adda, Lombardy as the site to build their Cotton Factory, during the first period of industrialisation in Italy. The foundations were begun by Cristoforo Benigno Crespi in 1877, during the epoch of the enlightened industrialists, proprietors and philanthropists who, inspired by social doctrine, wished to satisfy their workers' needs, taking care of their lives inside and outside the factory. The idea was to give all the workers a cottage with a vegetable garden, and to furnish all the services necessary to their life: a church, a school, a hospital, a community centre, a theatre, public baths and others. This experiment of company paternalism collapsed at the end of the 1920s with the bankruptcy of its owners, and as a result of the transformation of the industrial landscape that took place in the 20th century, such as cheap foreign labour and materials, improved transportation, large scale power generation, higher aspirations of the local community and the increased productivity of formerly underdeveloped countries.

Today the village is inhabited by a community largely descended from the original workers. The factory itself finally stopped production only in 2004, its field of activity throughout its working life having been cotton textile production.

See also

• Model village
• Derwent Valley Mills, a similar World Heritage Site in Derbyshire, England whose first cotton mill was built in 1771.

Notes and references

External links

• Villaggio Crespi (Crespi Workers' Village)
• Crespi d'Adda
• Associazione Culturale Nema (lit. Nema Cultural Association)

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Categories: Buildings | Buildings in Italy | Buildings in , Italy | UNESCO World Heritage Sites | UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Europe and North America | UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Italy