The watermills on the Olona River are buildings used for milling activities that are scattered along the banks of the Olona River in the Lombardy region of Italy.
They reached their peak of development in the 17th century with the presence along the banks of the river of about a hundred milling plants.. Thereafter, from the 18th to the 19th century, there was a phase of decline, which ended just after World War II, when there were only about ten active mills still present on the banks of the river. As the centuries passed, their number gradually decreased, and only a small number have survived until the 21st century. Some of them are in a state of abandonment, while others have been recovered for a wide variety of purposes.
The presence of the mills, the abundance of local labor, the existence of modern and relevant communication routes along the banks, the presence of local personalities who had substantial capital to invest, and the long tradition of craftsmanship in the Olona Valley allowed the river, which flows through the province of Varese and Milan, to become one of the cradles of Italian industrialization..
History
Origins
Between the springs and Nerviano, the course of the river was once dotted with mills. Since the Middle Ages, milling activity thrived.. Such was the number of mills that by the 15th century this activity was a significant economic source for the entire area. Ownership of the mills enabled the authorities to retain control over the surrounding territories. The latter, in fact, was linked to the supply of grain, by the millers of the Alto Milanese, to the city of Milan. Noble families of the time therefore tended to centralize mill properties in order to retain discretionary power over their use, especially in times of famine. This importance was such even in later centuries, and for this reason the Sforza and Visconti Seigniories placed a number of fortifications to garrison the most important groupings of mills on the Olona, taking advantage of existing forts and castles. The stretch of the river where most of the mills were located was between Legnano and Pogliano..
The oldest known document in which a mill on the Olona is mentioned is from 1043: it refers to a millstone owned by Pietro Vismara located in "Cogonzio" (a toponym that later disappeared), between the locality "Gabinella" in Legnano and Castegnate, near the church of San Bernardo.. Other documents testifying to the presence of mills in Legnano are dated September 12, 1238 ("de subtus Legniano," meaning "south of Legnano") and 1261..
The once flourishing wine business in the Altomilanese area was put into crisis in the mid-19th century by a number of vine diseases. The first infection, pébrine, appeared between 1851 and 1852 and caused a rapid decline in the amount of wine produced in Lombardy: hectoliters of wine produced fell from 1,520,000 in 1838 to 550,000 in 1852.. The final halt in wine production coincided with the outbreak, between 1879 and 1890, of two other vine diseases: downy mildew and phylloxera. Following these epidemics, wine cultivation in the entire Altomilanese disappeared, and farmers concentrated their efforts on the production of cereals and silkworms. In other wine-growing areas of Lombardy, the problem was solved by grafting species of vines that were immune to the disease (fox grape).
The decrees and regulations for water use
The intensive use of the waters of the Olona River by farmers, millers and artisans required the authorities to issue special regulations (the so-called "Statutes of the roads and waters of the contado of Milan"): this happened the first time in 1346 and then in 1396. These documents explained how the waters were to be exploited in irrigation and for their use as motive power to move the water wheels of mills. From this the importance that the authorities of the time attached to the function of mills can be deduced.
The preconditions for the establishment of a consortium among the river water users occurred in 1541, when the so-called Novae Costitutiones (in English, the "new constitutions").. were signed. In this case, the new contract, which had a public character, provided for a Regius Judex Commissarius Fluminis Olona (in English, "river commissioner"), who supervised the control of the users of the waters of the Olona. Typically, this function was held by a member of the Senate of Milan. The Novae Costitutiones, and the offices associated with them, remained in effect until 1797..
In 1548, a proclamation was issued requiring water users to substantiate, through written documentation, the details of the various uses. Failure to comply with these regulations resulted in the payment of penalties, against which noble families were exempt. In these centuries the distribution of water was not equitable. The richest and most powerful users prevailed over the poorer and defenseless ones.
In 1606 a real consortium was established in Milan among the users under the supervision of the river commissioner. It was not a coincidence that the consortium was established in Milan: the water users who had the most conspicuous interests dwelt in the Milanese capital. This consortium association still survives under the name of the Olona River Consortium.
The censuses
In 1606 the Royal Ducal Chamber of Milan commissioned some "ocular inspections" carried out by provincial engineers or guardians of the river, who were assigned to safeguard individual sections of the river. Engineer Pietro Antonio Barca surveyed 106 mills between the source of Rasa di Varese up to the city of Milan, of which 105 were used for grinding grain while the last one, located in Milan and owned by the Reverend Friars of San Vittore Olona, operated a trip hammer for the construction of arms and armor. The first censuses allowed, for the first time, a thorough survey of the mills along the river. It was in the government's interest to find abuses and waste perpetrated by users, and to determine precisely the fees they had to pay for drawing water.
In the 1606 inspection it was found that the Legnanese area was a suitable place for the construction of mills, since in this area the Olona River provided constant water for much of the year, and fast enough to move the large blades. Fourteen of them were in operation in this stretch of the river. In 1608, during a survey carried out by engineer Paolo Barca, it was found that there were 116 mills along the river with 463 water wheels serving these milling plants (called, in the Olona Valley, "rodigini"). Since there were 463 wheels in operation, it can be inferred from these figures that many mills had more than one wheel. Each of them could perform a different function. With Barca's report, the number of mills, wheels and owners were determined for the first time.
In 1733 a second census was taken. Made by the field warden Gaspare Bombelli, this document listed the mills and buildings along the course of the river. In 1772 a third census was taken, this time by surveyor Gabriele Verri and engineer Gaetano Raggi. By this time the number of mills had decreased from 116 to 106, with a total of 424 rodigini. These mills also moved a spinning wheel, two fulling mills, some oil presses, and a trip hammer. In the mentioned year in Legnano the mills had dwindled to 12, and among the owners were a large number of noble families, as well as the Policlinico of Milan and the Archbishop's Revenue of the Diocese of Milan. Starting in the 18th century, the distribution of properties also changed. Censuses of the eighteenth century showed that the properties associated with clergymen had decreased.
Until the 18th century, millers who worked in mills were generally not their owners as well. From the end of the mentioned century, millers began to buy the mills where they plied their trade.
A century later, the number of mills dropped again. In 1881, according to the report of engineer Luigi Mazzocchi, appointed engineer of Olona in 1880 by the river consortium, there were 55 mills, with a total of 170 wheels. This census shows that the owners of the mills no longer belonged to the aristocratic and ecclesiastical classes, but to the rising middle class.
Livellari and conduttori The millers, that is, those who worked and dwelt with their families in the mills along the Olona River, were called "conduttori." The conduttori, in turn, received permission to settle in the mills from the so-called "livellari," that is, those who managed and controlled the milling facilities on behalf of the actual owners. Very often the livellari were the ones who worked in the mills without delegating this task to the conduttori. The management of the mills was feudal. The function of conduttore of the mill was hereditary, that is, it passed from father to son. In the absence of sons, the livellaro would choose a new conduttore.
The names of the mills hardly recalled the name of the owner. They were generally related to the names of the conduttori and livellari. For example, the Gadda mill in Fagnano Olona was known in this way by the last name of the livellaro and not by the Terzaghi counts, who were the owners.
At the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries this situation began to change. The livellari and conduttori, due to the money accumulated over the years and with the passing of generations, were able to purchase the mills from the historical owners.
Mills, artisans and industry The mills of the Olona River were not only used to grind grain, but also to produce seed oil, to husk rice, and to move the machinery of artisans. The wheels installed along the Olona operated the hammers for copper and iron working, sawmills (both marble and timber), and the tools of textile artisans. Along the banks of the river, hemp and linen cloth was retted, while woolen cloth underwent washing. Because of the deposits that settled at the bottom, activities related to the processing of flax and hemp were later banned.
Mills were key players in the first phase of the industrial revolution that involved the Olona Valley in the 19th century. After 1820, mills began to be used to move the machinery of the first factories that sprang up along the banks of the river. During the industrial development of the 19th and 20th centuries, many mills became part of the industrial establishments that were springing up along the Olona. Many pre-industrial activities that arose in the Olona Valley, and which were the nuclei of the future modern industrial establishments, were implanted along the banks of the river in order to allow the movement of the plants by exploiting the motive power of the waters. This motive power was originated through the modification and expansion of mills originally intended for grinding agricultural products. Industrialization of the banks of the Olona was thus gradual, with entrepreneurs preferring to exploit the hydraulic systems of the old mills rather than implant new ones. In other words, industry was born as a metamorphosis of part of the old mills, which were first transformed into protoindustries and then into real industrial activities. As a consequence, the greatest concentration of pre-industrial activities occurred at the stretches of the river where there was a greater presence of milling plants.