CARTIERA VI-MA [IT]

Exploration #285. The VI-MA paper mill in Cairate was born in the post-war boom as a separate production pole linked to the Vita-Mayer group. Built south of the older mill, it served the rising market for disposable paper before the crisis and closure of 1977.

In the industrial landscape of the Olona Valley, the Cartiera VI-MA of Cairate represents one of the clearest signs of Italy’s economic expansion after the Second World War. It must not be confused with the historic Vita-Mayer paper mill, whose roots go back to the nineteenth century. VI-MA came later, when Astorre Mayer redirected production toward mass consumption and disposable paper goods. The new plant answered a practical need: the original factory, compressed between Cairate and Lonate Ceppino, had almost exhausted its available space.

Around the 1950s and 1960s, demand was growing fast, and the wider Vita-Mayer system reached its peak, with thousands of workers, heavy freight traffic and an annual output reported at 80,000 tons of paper. VI-MA was therefore more than an annex. It was the modern face of the company’s final expansion: reinforced-concrete buildings, large industrial volumes and a layout designed for scale. Its story follows the same curve as many Italian paper industries: growth, technological ambition, then sudden decline.

From 1971 the sector was hit by international competition, shortages of timber and wider social and political instability. Floods of the Olona added further damage. In 1977 the group collapsed, leaving VI-MA silent together with the rest of the Cairate paper-making district. Today the former VI-MA paper mill is part of a vast industrial archaeology area between Cairate and Lonate Ceppino. Its abandoned structures preserve the memory of a working valley shaped by water, railways, paper and the fragile optimism of the post-war industrial age.

(main source: https://www.cartieracairate.it/la-storia/).

CARTIERA SOTTRICI BINDA [IT]

Exploration #255 Cartiera Sottrici Binda. The former Binda paper mill in Vaprio d’Adda was founded in 1890 by the Binda family, active in the production of paper, and was one of the most important industrial companies in the area in the late 19th and early 20th century. The strategic location along the Adda river was ideal for industrial activity, as the river provided the water power needed to drive the paper mill machinery.

The surrounding area was already well known for its industrial activities, thanks to the presence of the Naviglio della Martesana canal and the Edison hydroelectric power plant in Vaprio d’Adda. In its peak years, the Binda paper mill employed many people in the area, contributing significantly to the economic development of the area. Every Vaprio family had at least one member employed at the paper mill or at the nearby Velvis velvet mill.

Production ranged from paper for notebooks, registers, envelopes and drawing sheets, to the manufacture of decorative paper for plastic laminates, which began in 1956 and became the product of excellence. However, as the years went by, the crisis in the paper industry and increasing competition led to a gradual reduction in the mill’s activities. Following several changes of ownership, the mill was finally closed in 2007 under the management of the Finnish Munksjö Paper.

CARTIERA VITA MAYER [IT]

Exploration #254 Cartiera Vita Mayer. Paper production along the Olona valley was already present in the 1700s. One of the oldest paper mills was located in Lonate Ceppino and became Cartiera Enrico Vita & C. in 1897. The management was then passed on to the sons who expanded it with new buildings and machinery; a few years later, with the marriage between Tilde Vita and Sally Mayer, a member of an important industrial family from Turin, the name became the definitive and famous name of Cartiera Vita & Mayer. The paper mill developed further, also thanks to the creation of the Valmorea railway which passed close to the factory: in 1908 it was already employing 440 people and producing 6,000 t of paper a year.

It was hit several times by violent floods of the Olona river (1908, 1911 and 1917), but this did not slow down its growth: a new renewal of the machinery took place during the First World War, and in the 20s and 30s new huge buildings and a vocational school for the training of employees were built. In 1937, a paper pulp plant (8,000 t per annum) came into operation, but the following year the Mayers, a Jewish family, were forced to emigrate because of the racial laws, and ownership of the industry passed to the government.

Once the war was over, the Mayers took back the paper mill and launched a grandiose renovation plan: between that year and 1949 the factory was enlarged with new, huge pavilions, and a power station was built on the hill above it, with a soaring concrete chimney that still marks its presence today. Despite the severe flooding in 1951, the following year a large plot of land to the south of the factory was purchased, where a new factory was erected, which took the name of Cartiera ViMa, which we will report on in another exploration.

The 1950s and 1960s were the golden years: there were 2,500 employees and six goods trains ran to and from the factory every day. Production of paper for hygienic products began (1957) and two adjacent companies located in Fagnano Olona, Cartiera Sterzi and Sacchettificio Bisson & C., were purchased and renamed Cartiera Aquila.
The crisis, due to competition from Eastern European countries and the shortage of timber, began in 1971. Agreements with the government to save the company were a failure: only 2 million lire were obtained instead of the 6 million requested, and in exchange Vita Mayer had to take over a number of paper mills in central and southern Italy, whose economic situation was even worse. As it was no longer economically viable to continue the service, the Valle Olona railway closed in 1976, which, together with two violent floods (11 June 1975 and 1 October 1976), dealt the company the final blow. The two mills were finally closed on 11 August 1977.

Since then, the cartiera Vita Mayer paper mill has remained in a state of total disrepair and nature has been able to take over many of the buildings. Partial redevelopment work began in 2017, involving the disposal of asbestos and the demolition of some buildings, leading to a future clean-up of the area. The work is currently (2021) still stopped (source: wikipedia).

EX SAFFA [IT]

Exploration #219. The company’s history began in 1871 when industrialist Giacomo De Medici opened a match factory in Milan. At the same time he purchased from the Regio Demanio the buildings of the former Austrian customs house in Magenta, where he established the company SAFFA, Società Anonima Fabbricazione Fiammiferi e Affini.

On 22 September 1886, the entire production of the Milan factory was moved to the buildings in Magenta where, after only a year, it employed 600 people and produced half a million matchboxes. The company grew every year: in 1890 the number of workers rose to 900 and production to seven billion matches a year. In the 1930s, almost 1,500 employees were employed and the production of poplar plywood panels for the construction of packaging and furniture was started.

In 1935, SAFFA took over UNIAT, Unione Nazionale Italiana Accenditori Torino (Italian National Union of Turin Lighters) and also started to produce flint and wheel lighters, also producing for Cartier.
By the end of the 1950s, the management was assigned to engineer Pietro Molla, thanks to whom two new factories were opened and the one in Magenta upgraded. In the 1970s, thanks to new automatic machinery, production increased to 45 billion matches per year, both wood and wax, as well as lighters and plywood boards. In addition, in earlier years, the company had been expanded to include a paper mill.

As the years went by, the consumer market for matches and matches grew smaller and smaller, while new types of lighters were invented that were cheaper and easier to use than those produced by SAFFA. Engineer Molla attempted to convert SAFFA to paper production exclusively, but unfortunately the company’s story came to an end in 2002, when, due to production difficulties that had been lingering for years, the company was officially declared closed.

The area was partly abandoned and partly used as a warehouse until 2019 when it was completely demolished to allow the construction of a large glassworks.

PAPIERFABRIK CYCLONKESSEL [DE]

Exploration #136. Papierfabrik Cyclonkessel is an abandoned coal power plant in the Black Forest region, Germany. This area of the Black Forest had large forest deposits and many rivers essential to the paper production. For this reason, many paper factories were established in the region. This power plan was part of one of these industries which was found in the 1884. The factory prospered for over a century but in the mid 1990s it began to have financial difficulties and at the begging od 2000s the factory was closed and abandoned.

The power station was built in the early 1920s to provide electricity to the paper factory. It features Siemens turbines and Steinmuller boiler. In the course of In the course of the 1950s the power station was upgraded with two new Siemens turbines and a KSG Steinmuller Cyklonkessel boiler (a cyclone type boiler, burning crushed coal from a top fed system). I visited this nice location in 2017 and sadly it was ruined by many graffiti.

Not far from this location is another lovely abandoned coal-fired power station: the Peppermint Power Station.

CARTIERA AQUILA [IT]

Exploration #132 Cartiera Aquila. This location has housed various activities during its history. As early as 1881 there was a spinning mill, although its date of construction is unknown. The date of 1881 is known because there is a document showing that the factory requested the construction of a bank wall along the river, so as to channel the water for spinning uses.

In 1920, the ownership changed and a cotton mill was set up, which only after ten years was closed and the mill converted into a paper mill. After the Second World War, in 1950, the entire property was acquired by the “Cartiera Vita Mayer“, which renamed it “Cartiera Aquila”. Following the bankruptcy of the Mayer paper mill in 1977, the plant was converted into a plastics company and renamed Trifenica Aquila.

The latter business closed at the end of the 1990s and since then the whole area has been in a state of complete abandonment. Over the years, weather has caused many structures to collapse, vegetation has taken over courtyards and some buildings, making them unreachable.

CARTIERA Y [IT]

Exploration #83. These photos have been taken in a former big paper factory in Italy. The main building has an interesting architecture with Y-shape pillars. All the machines were disassembled and sold, but luckily a few very old devices survived.