Carrozzeria Carlo Castagna

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Fabbriche Riunite the Carrozze già Mainetti, Ferrari ed Orsaniga di C. Castagna
Carrozzeria Carlo Castagna
legal form Srl
founding 1901
resolution 1954
Seat Milan and Venegono Superiore , Italy
management Carlo Castagna
Ercole Castagna
Emilio Castagna
Number of employees 400 (1925)
Branch Body shop

The Carrozzeria Carlo Castagna was an Italian coachbuilder from Milan , which designed and built bodies for luxury automobiles under the shortened brand name Carrozzeria Castagna in the first half of the 20th century. Before the Second World War, Castagna was one of the most renowned Italian bodywork manufacturers. The company Castagna Milano , founded in 1994, uses the traditional name, but has no relationship with Carrozzeria Carlo Castagna.

Company history

ALFA 24 HP with Castagna superstructure (1910)
ALFA 40-60 HP Aerodinamica (1914; replica)
Isotta Fraschini 8A "Commodore" (1929)
Alfa Romeo 6C Berlinetta (1939)

There are very different sources of information about the origins of the company. Some internet sources assume that it was founded by Carlo Castagna in 1849. According to another representation, the company goes back to the Milanese carriage manufacturer Paolo Mainetti, founded in 1835. Its owner took the then nine-year-old Carlo Castagna into his company as an apprentice in 1849 or 1864. Over the years, Castagna rose to this source in senior positions. In the 1890s he became the company's director and partner. Under his leadership, Mainetti gradually bought the local rival companies Albini , Enrico Orsaniga and Eugenio Ferrari and merged them to Ferrari, Mainetti & Orsaniga . In 1894 Carlo Castagna took over the majority stake in this company. After restructuring and the participation of new investors from the Milanese aristocracy, the company was named Fabbriche Riunite die Carrozze già Mainetti, Ferrari ed Orsaniga di C. Castagna in 1901, which was shortened to Carrozzeria Carlo Castagna in 1906.

In 1905, Castagna moved the company's activities to the construction of automobile bodies. After Carlo Castagna's death in 1914, his son Ercole, born in 1885, initially took over the management of the company alone; In 1919 Carlo Castagna's younger son Emilio also joined the company. Emilio Castagna was responsible for the design of numerous superstructures in the 1920s. At the beginning of the 1920s, the factory area reached a size of 32,000 m². Castagna had 400 employees and produced around 100 bodies a year. After the company had become the largest Italian body manufacturer in the 1930s, the production of civil automobiles came to a standstill at the beginning of the Second World War. In 1942 the factory facilities in Milan were completely destroyed in a bombing. Emilio Castagna, who had already left the family business in 1940, founded the Carrozzeria Emilio Castagna, an independent company in Milan that existed until 1960 and mainly produced small series on a Fiat basis.

After the end of the war, Ercole Castagna and the parent company moved into new plants in the Lombardy municipality of Venegono Superiore . The attempt to build on the successes of the pre-war period failed. Castagna designed and built a few special bodies for Alfa Romeo and Lancia chassis , but in view of Italy's economic difficulties in the early post-war period, it did not find enough customers to keep the company going. In 1954, the Carrozzeria Carlo Castagna ceased operations.

Castagna bodies

Castagna began manufacturing automobile bodies in 1905. Building on the clientele of Ferrari, Mainetti & Orsaniga, the automobile bodies were also intended for wealthy clients. Castagna produced for the Italian nobility from the start; later vehicles for popes were also built . The first car to be dressed by Castagna was a Fiat 24 HP for the Princess of Savoy . Further chassis came in the early phase from Mercedes-Benz , OTAV and Rochet-Schneider . One of the sensational creations from the prewar period was a teardrop-shaped limousine called Aerodinamica , which was created in 1914 on the basis of the ALFA 40-60 HP on behalf of the Milanese industrialist Marco Ricotti . During the First World War , the production of superstructures for private customers came to a standstill; Castagna built ambulances and trailers during the war years.

After the end of the war, Castagna turned back to luxury automobiles. The company designed and built one-offs and small series for chassis from Alfa Romeo , Fiat , Isotta Fraschini and Lancia , and more rarely from Mercedes-Benz and Duesenberg . For its superstructures, it also used innovative technologies such as bodies made of aluminum sheets. From 1929 onwards, station wagons were also made in the Woodie style adopted from the USA , which Castagna Milano, which was founded in 1994, took up repeatedly. In the second half of the 1930s, Emilio Castagna's designs were influenced in many ways by the aerodynamic trend; Numerous superstructures with flowing, rounded lines were created in particular on Alfa Romeo 6C chassis. Another specialty of Castagna were so-called Vistotal bodies. These bodies had frameless windshields. With the directly adjoining, likewise inimitable side windows, there was an undisturbed all-round view, which anticipated the effect of a panoramic window . For the Vistotal bodies, Castagna used a patent from the French body manufacturer Labourdette , which the latter had been marketing under the name Vutotal since 1935 .

During the Second World War, Castagna produced military vehicles. After the end of the war, the company still produced a few unique items and small series on customer request, increasingly in pontoon style since the late 1940s . Advertising vehicles were also created, including a Simca designed as a sewing machine .

literature

  • Alessandro Sannia: Enciclopedia dei carrozzieri italiani. Società Editrice Il Cammello, 2017, ISBN 978-88-96796-41-2 .

Web links

Commons : Carrozzeria Carlo Castagna  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Alessandro Sannia: Enciclopedia dei carrozzieri italiani. Società Editrice Il Cammello, 2017, ISBN 978-88-96796-41-2 , p. 167 f.
  2. ↑ a b c Outline of the history of Carrozzeria Castagna on the website www.coachbuild.com (accessed on February 13, 2018).
  3. ↑ Overview of the company's history on the website www.carrozzeriacastagna.com (accessed on February 13, 2018).
  4. ↑ a b c History of Carrozzeria Castagna on the website leroux.andrre.free.fr (accessed on February 15, 2018)
  5. ^ Dennis Adler: Duesenberg. Krause Publications, 2004, ISBN 1-4402-2532-X , p. 259.
  6. ↑ Description of Labourdette's Vutotal bodies on the website www.coachbuild.com (accessed on February 14, 2018).