Tobacco Factory (Rovereto)
Coordinates: 45 ° 53 ′ 1.7 " N , 11 ° 1 ′ 16.3" E
The K. uk tobacco factory (Italian: Manifattura Tabacchi ) in Borgo Sacco (now part of Rovereto ) was founded in the 1850s and remained in operation until 2008. Then the area was converted into a technology park.
history
Tobacco cultivation and processing began in Trentino at the end of the 16th century. In the middle of the 19th century, the municipality of Sacco , located in the middle of the tobacco region, was selected as the new location for an imperial Austrian tobacco factory. At that time, the silk manufacture , long an important pillar of the economy around Rovereto, was in a crisis. On March 20, 1851, an agreement was reached between the Austrian Ministry of Finance and the municipality of Sacco on the establishment of a tobacco factory. The land and raw materials for the construction were provided by the municipality. The municipality of Rovereto also contributed to the costs. For power generation was a waterwheel used which by one from Torrente Leno was driven derived underground water channel.
The complex went into operation in 1854, initially with two workrooms for 220 workers each. The factory initially supplied four products: Virginia cigars , snuff , tobacco extracts, and rolled cigarettes . It quickly became one of the most important tobacco factories in the empire and the busiest company in Trentino. Over the decades there have also been a number of changes in labor law, including a day-care center for the children of the workers, a social fund and a trade union . As a result of the First World War , production came to a standstill, whereupon the entire staff was transferred to the tobacco companies in Linz and Bohemia . At the end of the war, Trentino fell to the Kingdom of Italy and the factory came under the control of the royal state monopoly . All 1,400 employees were able to return to their jobs when it reopened on March 19, 1919. However, the number of employees was successively reduced through the rationalization of work processes and by 1935 was only around 700.
During the Second World War , production was able to continue almost undisturbed, and the factory hardly suffered any damage. A modernization process began in 1948, and in 1953 cigars were given up in favor of cigarette production. Tobacco growing in the area, meanwhile, experienced a gradual decline. In 1969 the factory became a licensee of Philip Morris , and in 1970 the new technical industrial area in the immediate vicinity of the old factory went into operation. By switching to machines, the gender ratio among employees shifted strongly in favor of men, while the total number remained at around 700. After the Italian state monopoly on tobacco was abandoned, the factory was initially transferred to Ente Tabacchi Italiani (ETI) and was finally sold to British American Tobacco (BAT) in 2003 . The number of employees then fell rapidly until BAT closed the site on March 31, 2008.
Progetto Manifattura
The Manifattura area was taken over by the Province of Trento on October 30, 2008 . The province's marketing and innovation company, Trentino Sviluppo , then began converting the industrial site into a technology park that focuses primarily on sustainability . The sponsoring company of the project traded first as Manifattura Domani , then as Progetto Manifattura . The "old" building complex will be retained, while a completely new area with modern, flexible rooms will be created on the site of the commercial area from 1970.
literature
- Annalisa Gerola (Ed.): I 150 anni del Gigante. Storia della Manifattura Tabacchi di Rovereto attraverso immagini e testimonianze . 2nd Edition. Publistampa Edizioni, 2011, ISBN 978-88-96014-17-2 .
Web links
- Progetto Manifattura (Italian)