Declared in 1995 by UNESCO to be a World Heritage site, the Crespi d'Adda cotton mill at Capriate San Gervasio is one of the most interesting examples of Italian worker villages.
In 1871, Cristoforo Crespi built the first four buildings for workers after moving his cotton mill from Vigevano to Canonica (an area which was later merged with Capriate under the name Crespi d'Adda).
In 1889, his son Silvio Benigno abandoned the idea of housing the families of workers in the same building and set about constructing single family houses with a garden and vegetable patch to create a proper village. Subsequent expansions of the village ended with the Crespi family moving to the village themselves.
Based on the idea that the continual improvement of the living conditions of his workers would prevent a great deal of social conflict, Silvio Benigno Crespi created an example of a "social city" based on the theories of Robert Owen in which the improvement of the lot of the working classes was the goal by means of exemplary social reforms.
The cotton mill, the houses of the workers, the villa-castle belonging to the owner, the nursery school, elementary schools, theatre, public washing facilities, hotel, clinic, food shops and church (in Bramantesco style built in 1891 inspired by the church of Santa Maria in Piazza Busto) remains almost unaltered. The economic crisis and the Fascist fiscal policies finally forced the family to sell the village in 1929 but the complex remains a testimony to the paternalistic philosophy of private business from the last century.
Milan