Crespi d'Adda

The textile factory and worker's village of Crespi d' Adda is on the river Adda. It is a fraction of the Capriate San Gervasio in the Italian province of Bergamo ( Lombardy ). The village, completed in the late 1920s has been preserved virtually unchanged over time.

History

Crespi d' Adda is considered a jewel of industrial archeology. Since its founding in 1878 Cristoforo Benigno Crespi was here, a member of a dyer dynasty from about 100 km to the west located in Busto Arsizio, produce cotton products. The decisive factor for the choice of location "on the green meadow " was the availability of water power. After the English garden city idea and guided by other models from Germany and France Wurd - later under the leadership of his son Silvio Benigno Crespi - until the 1920s, with high design competence effort a closed village with the factory system, urbanization, infrastructure facilities including hot water supply, school, doctor, laundry, church erected.

In 1995 the village was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.