HISTORICAL AND TERRITORIAL FRAMEWORK

Delia Settimo

Name of the industry

SAICI – Società anonima agricola industriale per la produzione italiana di cellulosa (established in Milan on 31/01/1938); → SAICI – Società agricola industriale per la cellulosa italiana – Joint-stock company (name changed in 1949 following a capital increase) [1]; → SNIA Viscosa [2] (01/10/1968 – 31/12/1980); → Chimica del Friuli [3] (01/01/1981 – 31/12/1994); → Industrie Chimiche Caffaro (01/01/1995 – 15/01/2009)

Chronology

1938 – 2009

Location

Torre di Zuino (hamlet of San Giorgio di Nogaro – Udine); it became an independent municipality under the name Torviscosa on 1 January 1941

Ownership and corporate history

SAICI was a company of SNIA Viscosa, which always retained full ownership of its capital. Consequently, SAICI consistently followed the developments of SNIA Viscosa throughout its various corporate transformations. Founded in Turin in 1917 as SNIA (Società di Navigazione Italo Americana) [4] and initially operating in merchant maritime transport, after World War I SNIA completely changed its sector, moving into the production of artificial textile fibers, particularly viscose obtained from cellulose processing. In a short time, it became Italy’s leading company in the sector and also gained a strong position on the international market. In 1922, it decided to change its corporate name, while retaining the acronym SNIA, by adding the name of its main product. It thus became SNIA Viscosa (Società Nazionale Industria Applicazioni Viscosa). Due to significant fluctuations in the price of cellulose needed for its production, in the 1930s the company began research and initiatives aimed at making Italian textile production independent from imports of raw materials from other countries—a decision fully aligned with the autarkic economic policies of the Fascist government. It was in this context that SAICI was established in January 1938, through the merger of the companies Bonifiche Torre di Zuino and Bonifiche del Friuli [5], which SNIA Viscosa had acquired a few months earlier. The new company was tasked with managing all agricultural and industrial activities that SNIA Viscosa intended to undertake in Torre di Zuino, aimed both at cultivating plants for cellulose production and at its industrial processing. Initially, the plant species selected for autarkic cellulose production was giant reed (Arundo donax), a grass with an annual production cycle that appeared very promising. However, the results fell short of expectations: the reed was therefore used only in small quantities and was soon supplemented with wood [6]. SAICI was entrusted to the management of Franco Marinotti, who at that time was also CEO of SNIA Viscosa, of which he became president in 1939. Marinotti held these roles in both companies until his death in 1966. SAICI formally ceased to exist in 1968, when it was incorporated into the parent company. From that moment until 1980, the Torviscosa plant took the name SNIA Viscosa. The crisis that affected the company at the end of the 1970s forced a deep corporate reorganization and several divestments. The agricultural company in Torviscosa underwent this fate: it had already been separated from SNIA Viscosa in 1978, forming a new company called Torvis, which was acquired the following year by the Ferruzzi Group. The chemical company was also separated from SNIA Viscosa in 1981, taking the name Chimica del Friuli [7]. Meanwhile, SNIA Viscosa—having also incorporated Bombrini Parodi Delfino in 1968—changed its name in 1981 to SNIA BPD and reorganized into divisions according to production type. In 1985, SNIA BPD acquired control of Caffaro, a historic chemical company based in Brescia, and established Caffaro SpA, the group’s chemical division, which also included a plant in Colleferro (Rome) and the historic Torviscosa site. The Torviscosa plant retained the name Chimica del Friuli until 1995, after which it became Industrie Chimiche Caffaro, a name it kept until the bankruptcy of the holding company SNIA SpA (formerly SNIA BPD) in 2009 [8].

Description of the site

The plant was located south of the Venice–Trieste railway and east of the village of Torre di Zuino. The choice was driven by the need for easy rail and road connections, but also by the availability of a navigable waterway, which was to be used for the discharge and dilution of industrial waste. Construction work began in 1937, and on 21 September 1938, at the time of its inauguration in the presence of Mussolini, the factory was already partially operational [9]. It extended for over one kilometer and consisted of eleven departments, a large yard, and the Jensen tower shaped like a fascio littorio. The brick-clad buildings were arranged in a largely symmetrical layout along a longitudinal axis oriented east–west, open on both the north and south sides. Starting from the west, on the north side were the gatehouse-infirmary, administrative offices, and the cellulose plant with its research and testing laboratory. On the south side were the cellulose warehouse, workshops, carpentry, thermoelectric power station, sulfur combustion plant, the Jensen tower with the calcium bisulfite production unit, and further on, the dock. Construction of the plant and its related facilities continued until 1940, when the structures were doubled and a second Jensen tower was added. The covered area increased from 400,000 to 600,000 square meters [10].

1. Cfr. Archivio Storico Snia (d’ora in oi ASS), SAICI, Verbale del Consiglio di amministrazione della SAICI del 27 giugno 1949, p. 85.
2. Cfr. ASS, SNIA, Verbale del Consiglio di amministrazione della SNIA Viscosa del 27 marzo 1968, p. 193.
3. Cfr. ASS, Chimica del Friuli, Libro dei verbali n. 1, Verbale del Consiglio di Amministrazione del 16 dicembre 1980.
4. Cfr. Mezzo secolo di SNIA Viscosa. Milano, Pan editrice, 1970, p. 15.
5. Cfr. Marcella Spadoni, Le fibre tessili artificiali in Italia dai primi del Novecento alla Seconda guerra mondiale. Università degli studi di Pisa, Corso di dottorato in Storia Economica, anno accademico 1999/2000, p. 158.
6. Cfr. Mareno Settimo, Torviscosa 1940. Progetti e realizzazioni, speranze e fallimenti, truffe e soprusi nel nome dell’autarchia. Torviscosa, Gruppo Consiliare Mareno Settimo, 2020, pp. 128 e segg.
7. Cfr. Un futuro di esperienza. Milano, SNIA BPD, 1987, p. 64.
8. Cfr. Caffaro – Brescia, in Industria e ambiente. Per un atlante storico dell’impatto sul territorio dell’industrializzazione diffusa e intensiva, https://www.industriaeambiente.it/schede/caffaro_brescia, (ultima consultazione 23 febbraio 2026).
9. Cfr. Mareno Settimo, Torviscosa 1940 cit., pp. 178-179.
10. Cfr. Torviscosa la città della cellulosa. Milano, Ufficio Propaganda Snia Viscosa, 1941, pp. 83-90.