Sanitaria Ceschina & C
THE ABANDONED FACTORY IN ITALY
‘Sanitaria Ceschina & C’ is an abandoned Italian textile factory. This old factory hidden in the woods in Italy made sanitary items. Most buildings are heavily decayed and even collapsed.
Carlo Ottolini Ferrario built the first factory on this site in 1842. By 1854, the factory employed about 156 workers and operated 14 spinning machines with a Poncelet hydraulic system. A fire completely destroyed the factory in 1899.
Amedeo Landini, who owned a nearby mechanical weaving mill, bought the area after the fire. He rebuilt the factory using bricks instead of wood.
Medical textiles
In 1914, Sanitaria Ceschina purchased the mill. This company, founded in 1907 by 28-year-old Luigi Gaetano Ceschina, specialized in aseptic and antiseptic medications, as well as medical and surgical instruments. With its own cotton mill, Sanitaria Ceschina quickly developed new products like gauzes and cotton wool for medical purposes.
World Wars
During the two World Wars, there was a high demand for sanitary items for the Army and the Red Cross. During the First World War, the factory also produced gun cotton and gas masks. The masks, were tested by Ceschina himself. In fact, the entrepreneur was locked up in a room full of poisonous gas to test the quality. After the war, the factory was able to convert its production and look for new innovative materials. The bombings during the Second World War destroyed many of his buildings and factories.
The factory was taken over by his three sons after the founder died in 1960. One of the sons, Mario, is killed by the Mafia, after the family paid a ransom of 400 million Lire. After the last son died in 1988, the factory closes. The machines are still there, but covered in rust, moss, and plants. The factory was formed by various plants, each dedicated to one stage of the process: the spinning and weaving, bleaching, finishing, and packaging of products. I took these photos of ‘Sanitaria Ceschina & C’ in 2010.
