Contrà Pria, in Arsiero, is a cool oasis of breathtaking natural beauty. For millennia, the waters of the River Astico have been stirring, digging and smoothing its rock to form pools up to 8 or 9 metres deep, where visitors can swim to cool off or discover the shoals of trout and grayling on its bed. Leafy woods and pre-Alpine mountains are the backdrop to this corner of unspoiled scenery that has stunned visitors for centuries. Fogazzaro, too, was bewitched by it, to the extent that he described it in his novel “Daniele Cortis” with these powerful, evocative words: “At the Pria bridge, he pointed to the dwellings perched among the boulders, the gorge a sublime backdrop, and, further down, a gap where the powerful green water seeps, first finding itself trapped, then flowing down towards the meadows, clamouring and foaming as it goes.”
Water is the undisputed star in this corner of untamed natural beauty, today a tourist attraction and a source of economic development.
The old papermill
In 1893, Rossi bought a well-established papermill in Pria di Cogollo where he started to produce mechanical wood pulp and plant-based cardboard.
An ever-increasing need for water resources drove Rossi to buy up some of the valley’s numerous hammer mills and watermills. In 1895, he acquired the Barbieri copper mill and the watermills belonging to Giovanni and Antonio Dalla Via in Pria, Arsiero.
Sources: Incanti fogazzariani, Giovanni Matteo Filosofo, Editrice Veneta, 2011.
Mercanti, pionieri, capitani d’industria, Giovanni Luigi Fontana, Neri Pozza Editore, 1993.
