Museo regionale della bonifica Delta Po Adige.

Industrial Archeology


The Veneto region is full of examples of structures that identify the recent past of early industrialization. These consist of factories, power plants and buildings designed and built many years ago for the purpose of production. Subsequently they were abandoned or re-purposed, and became symbols of the hard-working Veneto people.

This industrial archeology, now seen as elements of a landscape, comprises structures that have transformed and not disfigured the environment, by using and interpreting it. 

In this sense, we would like to offer a brief overview of some of the best examples of the recovery of former industrial areas, carried out not only for conservation and museum purposes but also for production. These projects required structural reinforcement and restoration works to repurpose the buildings - result was major urban and environmental regeneration.

Thus starts a process, a sort of journey that on these pages will periodically introduce a brief commentary on some of the more significant reclaimed areas.

Let us start with the water-scooping machine of Ca' Vendramin in Taglio di Po, in the province of Rovigo.
The water-scooping system of Ca' Vendramin, in the Po Delta, is one of the finest and best preserved examples of industrial architecture that can be seen in the present day. In fact the area required the reclamation of wetlands to use them and make them fertile. Construction work began in 1900 and was completed in 1903, creating a work that made quite an impression at the time. 
The building now houses the Regional Museum of the Reclamation of the Delta Po Adige.