Alzano Lombardo

The grandiose “Officine Pesenti per la Produzione del Portland”, erected in 1883, constituted one of the most important monuments of industrial archaeology in Italy. This is where “natural cement” was born, with the first White Cement and Portland Cement from Lombardy. The factory, designed by Engineer Cesare Pesenti, saw the beginning of scientific research on cement. Its structures are one of the first applications of reinforced concrete in Italy.

The imposing factory – today known as the Ex Cementificio Italcementi, originally Officine Pesenti per la Produzione del Portland – represents the ‘cradle of cement’. It was built almost exclusively with cement produced here along with local materials, such as large pebbles from the nearby Serio River. The company, founded by brothers Carlo, Daniele, Augusto, Pietro, Luigi and Cesare Pesenti as Ditta Cementi e Calci Idrauliche F.lli Pesenti, became Italcementi in 1927. Production first included hydraulic limes, then quick-setting cements (known as “Uso Grenoble”), slow-setting cements, the prized white cement, the first Portland cement from Lombardy and other varieties. The Officine Pesenti took shape in 1883 along the route of the Roggia Morlana, being indispensable for hydraulic power. Engineer Cesare Pesenti, a leading figure in the technical culture of the time, played a decisive role in industrial progress. He was responsible for the studies and applications of reinforced concrete together with the importation of hydroelectric technology to Italy. The factory consists of two bodies: the western workshop, erroneously called “Moresco” (completed in 1898) and the eastern body with furnaces, the true heart of production, reformed as of 1896 and completed in the first two decades of the 20th century. It has been listed as a cultural asset of industrial archaeology since 1980.