FERRIERA STRAMEZZI [IT]

Exploration #182 Ferriera Stramezzi. “Ferriera Stramezzi” was founded in Crema, Italy, in 1913 by Dr. Paolo Stramezzi and engineer Mario Marazzi, who inherited a small horseshoe factory built in 1883 called Rezzica.
The foundry did very well, so that the owners financed the creation of the workers’ village called “Le Villette2. The houses were also provided with water, thanks to a pipeline coming from a well, dug inside the Ironworks.
During WWI the ironworks had a strong development due to army orders. After the war the factory became more and more specializing in the processing of scrap for the production of steel and in 1942 it was renamed as ”Acciaieria e Ferriera di Crema P. Stramezzi e C.”.

During WWII, in December 1944, the factory was heavily bombed forcing the management to dismiss everybody because of the production stop. After the war in 1946 the factory was slowly rebuilt and renovated. The most important activity of the plant was the production of nuts and bolts. The plant employed 1126 people. Three years later a Siemens-Martin oven was installed, using methane as fuel, which was recently discovered in the region and low-cost supplied by AGIP.
However, the huge supply of manufactured goods and specific machines easily produced in the Extreme East led to a deep crisis at the end of the 1970s. After several crisis of the steel market in Italy, the factory went bankrupt in 1994 and totally closed, emptied of all machines and abandoned. The plant was finally demolished in 2020.

You could also have a look at my other explorations of abandoned steelworks: the old decay forge, CUG industrial site, Völklinger Hütte.