The SNIA Viscosa company was born curiously from a company that had to deal with naval transport: the Società di Navigazione Italo Americana (SNIA) (Italian-American Navigation Society), founded in Turin in 1917 by Riccardo Gualino, with the aim of supervising the sea transport between Italy and the United States. In 1920, it temporarily changed its name to Società di Navigazione Industria e Commercio (Industry, Trade and Navigation Society) and then assumed the final name of Società Navigazione Industriale Applicazione Viscosa (SNIA Viscosa) (Industry and Navigation Society for the Application of Viscous materials) and it became, thanks to the activity of President Franco Marinotti, one of the most important companies in the country for the production of rayon.
In 1920 it incorporated the factory for the production of viscose, belonging to the French «Societè Italienne de la Viscose», located in Venaria Reale, which constituted the first nucleus of the city’s productive complex located beyond the Ceronda to the north.
In 1925 the SNIA, in a full industrial expansion, acquired the property of the S.A. Manifattura of Altessano, whose origins date back to the second half of the 18th century as Filatoio of Marquis Gerolamo Falletti of Barolo, to implant the second big plant of artificial silk located on the edge of Altessano, towards Turin. The two productive poles of Venaria Reale and Altessano gradually became part of the economic context of the city, occupying significant roles in the daily life of many families.
(Source: AA.VV., C’era una volta …la SNIA, Ed. Pro Loco , Venaria Reale, 2015.)
With the affirmation of the Snia Viscosa in Venaria Reale came, from the mid-twenties and for all the thirties , a first great wave of migrations, from Triveneto (north-east of Italy), where company officials hired peasant families who had fallen into poverty as a consequence of the First World War (a second wave will occur in the fifties and sixties from the southern regions, but on a smaller scale).
Venaria represented to them a new America: the possibility of emerging from a condition of endemic poverty. Reality turned out to be harsher than the expectations, because of the fatigue and inconvenience of a job too often harmful due to sulfide (whose smell was an integral part of the atmosphere of Venaria), and, at least in the early days, because of the lack of sympathy reserved by residents to immigrants.
But the Venetians, as they were erroniously called, were tenacious workers and, thanks mainly to the Case Operaie purpose-built village, they were able to huddle together and, over time, to adapt to the new Piedmontese environment. Their large families also contributed to a large demographical boost.
A time that now seems light years away, but the memory is still alive.
The inhabitants of a certain age have surely imprinted in their memory the blaring, loud sound of the factory’s sirens, in the Via Cavallo area, that from the early morning to the late evening used to mark the hours of begin and end of work shifts, and the marches, chattingly noisily along the road, of workers entering and leaving both plants, in Venaria and Altessano.
Entertainment was not lacking. The stop at the “Valentino” tavern for the men who indulged in wine and dance, practiced by everyone in various premises, allowed the “foresti veneti” (“Venetian strangers”) to familiarize with the more reserved Piedmontese and with the military roommates in the city barracks.
These meetings soon became the cause for mixed marriages and children of fathers unknown. However, despite the hard work, there was so much joy (as it has been written) to lighten life in the village courtyards.
You mustn’t forget, furthermore, how much the company did for its employees: in addition to the Case Operaie, with attached bathrooms and washrooms, vacations on the mountains to keep the workers healthy, the supplementary pensions, the food store, the “Cral” (clubs) for the after-work time, the Alpine and marine colonies, kindergartens and Christmas gift packs for children, and a lot more.
The Snia, therefore, was part of the daily life of many families of Venaria and Altessano who had at least one relative employed by the factory.
The two factories have been closed for years, but for this reason it is particularly valuable to remember the presence of this imposing company in the city.
Luciano De Biasi, latinist, historian, publicist born in Venaria
(Source: AA.VV., C’era una volta …la SNIA, Ed. Pro Loco , Venaria Reale, 2015.)