Museo del Setificio Piemontese

History

The industrial complex was developed by Count Giovanni Girolamo Galleani who moved from Bologna to Duchy of Savoy in 1676 bringing with him textile machinery invented in the Bologna silk trade. The construction of the large factory was completed in just two years. It was complex of turreted buildings surrounded by city walls and with two large internal courtyards, which also housed the living quarters of the Galleani family.

The decision to establish a production plant in the territory of Caraglio was motivated by three fundamental elements: the possibility of cultivating mulberry trees in the surrounding countryside; the presence of skilled workers; and the ample supply of water nearby. A canal was dug from nearby waterways to feed the water mills inside the factory. The mills returned the waste water to the countryside where it could be used.

The silk factory began production in 1678 and was a model for other spinning mills that subsequently emerged in numerous municipalities in the Cuneo area: Alba, Bene Vagienna, Boves, Busca, Carrù, Cavallerleone, Govone, Manta, Mondovì, Monesiglio, Racconigi, Revello, Villanovetta and the same Cuneo.

The Caraglio plant had five mills that operated the machinery and hosted the entire production chain: from the breeding of the baco from silk to the realization of the finished silk thread product. It provided work for about three hundred people, mostly women, called "maestre" (masters) for their expertise in producing the quality silk thread. These "maestre" also served to recruit and train new workers, usually young girls, who then migrated to the factory site.

It specialized in the production of the "Piedmontese organzine", a double-twisted silk yarn that was purchased by French silk weavers. According to British merchants Lewis and Loubière in the eighteenth century, it was "the finest silk produced in Europe" and was used to make the warp of fine fabrics for the aristocracy. …

The museum

The Museo del Setificio Piemontese (Piedmontese Silk Factory Museum) exhibits technologies used in the process of silk thread manufacture and the machinery involved in each step. It includes two two-story water-powered machines that were used in throwing (twisting) the silk thread.