Crespi d'Adda Workers Village

The Crespi d'Adda Workers Village is part of the Unesco World Heritage Sites list since 1995.

Crespi is the surname of the family who owned an old cottonmill and built this complex. Its architectural value has been acknowledged for being a symbol of a crucial period of human history.

It is one of Unesco Sites in Lombardy, because it represents an ideal staff accommodation structure put into practice, in which employers provide for their laborers' every need instead of just giving them a job. 

This compound put not only provided a house and orchard for its inhabitants, but also a hospital, church, and a school fully equipped with books and teachers sponsored by the company. Besides the aforementioned free services that were already quite innovative for the early twentieth century, it had two indoor swimming pools as well, one full of freshwater and other with sea water. 

Amongst these houses a few residences stand out, reserved for major management figures and a castle, where the owners used to live in.

Back in the 1990s, the Municipality proposed a development plan that included erecting new buildings in the area, but a local cultural association did everything to preserve it as a testimony of the Industrial Revolution in Lombardy.