Audio tour Torviscosa, a planned company town

In the tour described in this guide, you will learn about the special history of Torviscosa and you will see its most significant elements. While listening to this introduction, go to the large square in front of the factory, as the tour starts there. The story we are about to tell you begins in 1937: in that year, Italy’s largest company in the textile sector, SNIA Viscosa, decided to build a large industrial plant for the production of cellulose for textile fibers in the small town of Torre di Zuino, in lower Friuli. In line with the indications of the fascist autarkic policy, SNIA planned to use national raw materials and initially identified Arundo donax, i.e. giant cane, as a suitable plant. To avoid expensive transport, the cane had to be grown on site. Therefore, the company also acquired 5,300 hectares of land in the surrounding area. The project was both industrial and agricultural and affected both the urban planning and the agricultural landscape. In addition to the factory, between 1938 and 1942, SNIA Viscosa also built some facilities and the first houses for the workers. In 1940, it requested and obtained for the town to become an independent municipality with the name of Torviscosa. Until the early 1960s, it continued to expand with new housing units for its employees. Torviscosa is a company town, i.e. a city required by a private company and arranged according to its needs and vision. Some of the aesthetic features, and in particular the main square of the town, also make Torviscosa a part of the planned towns of the Fascist era.