In the central part of the Lanzo Valleys some villages lived off craft activities related to the exploitation of local mineral resources for centuries, at least since the Middle Ages: nails of all shapes and sizes were manufactured in Mezzenile, Pessinetto and Traves in countless forges, and locks were produced and assembled in Ceres and its environs; such activities experienced a crisis and disappeared in the second half of the last century.
While the foundries belonged to merchants, the forges, small stone buildings covered with slabs, placed mostly next to waterways, were almost always family-owned and up to sixteen nailmakers worked there. The many windows, essential for lighting the work environment, had no glass, which was too expensive, but butter paper that sheltered from the cold air in the long winters.
In the centre of the forge was always the fire that was used to redden the iron and make it malleable.
Nailmakers worked many hours a day, bent over pounding hard to make nails, and often, because of this, suffered permanent deformities.
Very few artisans were able to make all kinds of nails, as some of them, such as those for boots, were the preserve of a few specialists.
In the municipality of Mezzenile, which has lived for centuries off the production of nails, (in 1867 in Mezzenile there were 500 nailmakers out of a population of about 2600 inhabitants),an interesting ecomuseum was founded in honour ofthe nailmakers, which is worth going and visiting to try to understand how this activity was carried out for so many years in our mountains.
Foto @alessandra.corra
Archivio Regione Piemonte
