Varese Province and its network of industrial museums, in the guide edited by Jacopo Ibello

The industrial tourism guide, edited by Jacopo Ibello, for Morellini Editore, was recently published. The guide maps out the most important places of industrial culture (mostly museums), and provides support for a growing sector, that of the industrial tourism. This is demonstrated also by the numerous websites that talk about it, and the social media is also growing.

 

Among the places reviewed throughout Italy, there are many well-preserved examples of industrial archaeology in Varese Province. These include the Textile Museum (photo by Ibello), “Volandia”, the Fisogni Museum, the LIUC University and the Angelo Poretti Brewery, the first three of which (the Poretti brewery and the LIUC are not museums) are part of the newly established “MIVA”, the network of industrial museums in Varese Province. “It brings great satisfaction to see our Textile Museum listed among the industrial tourism destinations in Jacopo Ibello’s prestigious guide, published by Morellini Editore, and on the day after we took on a leading role in MIVA, the large network of industrial museums in Varese Province. This inclusion takes on even greater value after this publication, and it spurs us on to continue along this path,” said the Vice-Mayor and Councillor for Identity, Culture and Territorial Development, Manuela Maffioli.

 

The guide, the first of its kind, encourages its readers to discover the most important industrial archaeology sites, museums and business archives that can be found throughout the country, a heritage that has also become a topic of interest for tourism. The guide includes many industrial sites that have now been converted into places of culture, such as the Textile Museum, which is not only an important example of industrial archaeology in the town, but also a vehicle for promoting the business culture and textile tradition of the town of Busto Arsizio.

 

“The Textile Museum is the place of excellence in the town, because it combines knowledge and know-how, and is both the guardian of our identity and tradition and a forward-thinking promoter of new forms of textile industry, from the most cutting-edge productions, to art. It is a place of the heart, and we’ve been working hard on developing it, so that it has a real future,” Maffioli continued.

 

“Busto has written, and continues to write, the industrial history of Italy, and the Textile Museum is a tangible confirmation of this, both for the importance of the former production site, and for what it has become thanks to the great work of improvement, which began in the 1990s and which has never stopped. This is a commitment that the current administration is continuing with great determination, also because the museum represents a significant attraction for the area. I would like to thank the editor of the guide and the publisher for this important acknowledgement,” Mayor Emanuele Antonelli added.

 

About the guide: https://www.morellinieditore.it/; https://www.saveindustrialheritage.org/

 

Translated by Sara Mentasti, Giorgia Perinelli and Vittoria Bonanomi

Reviewed by Prof. Rolf Cook