With its torn structures and machinery eroded by rust, that place is capable of arousing a strong suggestive power and evoking sensations and reflections that transcend the surface of objects.
The history of this singular agglomeration of buildings and human events begins around 1858, when the landowner Leopoldo Silvatici took possession of a vast agricultural plot below the San Jacopo hill and bordered by the Rio Grifone. Also known as the Rio di Lupeta, this small stream, despite its modest flow, had allowed the development of small activities related to water and water energy in that area. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Silvatici started the construction of a large rectangular building, of which it is still possible to admire the solid and imposing appearance, destined for the use of an oil mill. In order to make up for any water shortages in the modest river and ensure a constant supply of water to the crusher wheel, two large capacity gores were built. A third will be added to these. After a few years, the mill activity was flanked by that of the mill, carried out in another wing of the same building. Since the beginning and throughout the second half of the 19th century, both the mill and the mill transformed a large quantity of product, allowing the Silvatici to obtain substantial profits. Subsequently, however, production suffered a substantial decrease until reaching a phase of serious crisis in the early 1900s. New mills, equipped with advanced technologies, had in fact been built in the areas facing the collection, thus eliminating the burden of transport for users: consequently the requests for milling and pressing against the Silvatici had greatly decreased. Giuseppe Silvatici, who succeeded Leopoldo, decided to cease activities so unprofitable and put all the property up for sale. On 2 March 1934 Nicolo Crastan, co-owner of the well-known Pontese food company, bought the complex.
Given the low probability of profit, Crastan decided to abandon the activity of the mill to undertake another one, which at the time enjoyed a fair demand: coal production. Faced with changing production needs, the new owner had a series of buildings built between 1934 and 1940 adjacent to the original core of the mill. At that time, those brick and gabled roof buildings were used as warehouses, which still stand along the borders of the property and characterize their appearance. Other artefacts of similar manufacture are located on the opposite side, near the left bank of the Rio Grifone. The oil mill, equipped with large volumes, was reused partly as an office location, partly as a warehouse for coal storage. In stark contrast to the rest of the buildings, while being coeval with them, there are the two sheds intended to contain the ovens used in the new production. Through one of the side gates, still today it is possible to see their pointed and leaden profile broken vertically by the black lines of the two exhaust smokestacks. In a short time, that oil mill so perfectly harmonized with the surrounding environment, through a traumatic superfetation had turned into a strange tangle of heterogeneous buildings piled close to each other, in total dystonia with the sweet hills of olive and cypress trees of the Pisan Mountains. The activity focused on the production of vegetable coal, through the use of the embers produced by the burning of wood from the surrounding woods. The product was mainly intended for domestic heating, in particular for ‘bed warmers’, the only time of comfort during the cold seasons. The coal production of the Crastans was stopped in the early years of the Second World War when, following the outcome of the conflict, the Italian economy collapsed. During the war period the area was used in various ways. The warehouses in front of the oil mill were used as “storage of Vicopisano oil and wheat”, of which the remains of the sign are still visible. In the building to the right of the oil mill, it was planned to transfer the Piaggio offices from Pontedera, where the proximity to the railway station, the target of the allied bombings, was a real danger. The Allied advance and the consequent cessation of the bombing made the need for the transfer disappear. The offices were not finished and remained abandoned. They were then used as a makeshift deposit.
(from leviedelbrigante.it)
