District of Panzano in Monfalcone

The worker village and manager houses of Cantiere Navale Triestino

Edino Valcovicha, Diana Barillari

a, Giovanni Cechet

a, Carlo Antonio Stival

b

a Department of Engineering and Architecture, University of Trieste, Italy

b Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, University of Padova, Italy

Summary

The contribution concerns the history of the residential District of Panzano, an urban area built

since 1908 for Monfalcone shipyard employees and workers; in the Thirties that shipyard was one

of the most important plants of this kind in the world. District realization is attributed to the

engineer Dante Fornasir, who has been heading from 1913 to 1939 the Public Utility Building

Association, which took charge to the construction of the area.

The District has been inaugurated in 1927: at that time, there were 195 buildings of various types

and richness, 39 shops and many facilities including a theater, two hotels for unmarried employees

and workers, a stadium for athletics and soccer.

The District is the proof that the industrial bourgeoisie of that period knew how to build a new town

with a clear organizational model, in which factory hierarchy defined a correspondence between

the individual workers functions and different building types.

Village architecture shows both a contradictory historicist vocation and interesting elements of a

modern urban planning and a rational infrastructure network. It's worthy to underline too that eng.

Fornasir used in some buildings reinforced concrete technologies he had patented.

The shipyard settlement in Monfalcone in 1908

In 1892 the Alberto and Callisto Cosulich shipping company moved from Losinj Island to Trieste;

the following years, between late 19th

and early 20th

centuries were characterized by remarkable

dynamism and a significant expansion of the company itself1.

A new, great, demand for goods and people mobility, during a period in which Habsburg Imperial

policy was more focused on supporting navigation business growth and technical improvement

within Imperial territory, let a substantial economic expansion of Cosulich brothers’ Company,

which mainly required the availability of new, modern ships2.

Since 1900 Cosulich brothers’ company had assumed the denomination of Austro-Americana

Fratelli Cosulich, and had its own reference in British shipyards, and particularly in Port Glasgow

shipyard. One of Callisto’s several sons, Augusto, as technical director of Austro-Americana

shipping company, was the supervisor of ship construction in England.

In consideration of growth prospects and just approved legislation support for the construction of

ships within the imperial territory, the Cosulich brothers decided to startup a new business initiative

which aimed to achieve the vessels needed for company development. In April 1908 the Cantiere

Navale Triestino (CNT) company was established in Trieste, in which Alberto and Callisto

Cosulich played a significant role with about 40% of whole capital; other shares referred to Banco

Commerciale Triestino (22%) and Wiener Bank Verein (15%).

Cosulich brothers chose as placement of this new shipbuilder activity the Panzano bay in

Monfalcone, in the final part of the waterway just completed. The considerable size areas were

1 On 16 January 1892 company Frat.lli Cosulich, as general partnership, was registered at Trieste Chamber

of Commerce. In 1900 Cosulich brothers detected partner's share Burell in the Austro-Americana shipping

company, which in 1899 had as many as 10 steamer ships and held major shipping lines between Trieste and

USA; the shipping company became thus Austro-Americana F.lli Cosulich. In 1903 newly founded Austrian

Shipping Union would have implemented goods transport with people transport, significantly expanding at

that time.

2 G. Mellinato, Cosulich. Dinastia Adriatica, 2008.

purchased by Faccannoni company of Trieste, operating in that period in Panzano Gulf for

excavation of inert materials in order to perform sea works in the new Trieste Port3.

Chosen areas were absolutely suitable for the placement of a shipyard, in particular for the low

salinity of seawater which allowed vessels equipping lengthy operations without any danger of

triggering deleterious phenomena of corrosion on ferrous materials, used for ship construction.

Since the beginning, thus, excavation operations were carried out with the operational aim of

corresponding the future needs of a shipyard.

Monfalcone area, in that period, is already placement of several factory activities, particularly in

textile sector, made possible by money capitals from Trieste; several infrastructure networks were

available in that period too, making the area very suitable to play an industrial role even more

important (ref. Fig. 1).

Since 1860, Monfalcone was connected to the Südbahn (the Southern Austrian Empire Railway,

opened in 1857 for the connection Trieste-Wien) and, thus, to the Friuli area, after the inauguration

of Udine-Cormons-Monfalcone-Aurisina railway4. It dates back in 1894 the construction of rail link

between Monfalcone and Cervignano; three years later, the new rail link Cervignano-San Giorgio di

Nogaro allowed connection to Portogruaro and then to Venice, attainable from Mestre since 1842.

Between 1894 and 1905 the irrigation ditch was completed, an important infrastructure project

which helped to rationalize the agricultural land use and, in its final part, the port development.

It should not be forgotten a strong action in support of industrial development held by the

Monfalcone Municipality, especially by the young deputy mayor Arturo Rebulla, born in

3 Between 1894 and 1905 the irrigation canal, which took the name of the Antonio De Dottori, Ronchi mayor

and important farmer, was carried out. In its final part it was a navigation channel, taking there the name of

the mayor of Monfalcone in that time, earl Eugenio Valentinis; there the width was larger than in canal

ordinary profile, so it was allowed to navigate, giving an important support to port activity development.

The canal was an important infrastructure project supporting agricultural activities in the area. At hydraulic

jumps five hydro-electric power plants were installed by company Officine Elettriche dell'Isonzo, which

significantly contributed to territory industrialization.

4 Southern Austrian Railway, opened in 1857, was designed by eng. Carlo Ghega (1802-1860) and allowed

the connection between Trieste and Wien: It is considered an extraordinary work of railway engineering

because of remarkable technical difficulties it had to resolve; along its path several long viaducts and tunnels

were built; in some place, the slope exceeded 25%, slope which at that time seemed to be insurmountable.

Capodistria (Koper), who entertained good relations with Oscar Cosulich, son of Callisto, of which

had been schoolmate. Panzano was offered by Rebulla to Oscar Cosulich as a suitable area for the

construction of the new industrial plant: the area well matched family company development

planning.

Fig. 1: Industrial map of Monfalcone performed by deputy mayor Podestà Arturo Rebulla in 1918.

(courtesy of Monfalcone Municipal Consortium)

In 1907, after the soil settlement, the early temporary buildings were erected in the future shipyard

area, under the direction of the English engineer James Steward of the Austro-Americana shipping

company. More than 200 skilled workers from England were hired, supported by shipwrights

coming from Losinj Island and Istria in general. The first schools, where lessons were taught by

English teachers and frequented by young workers of Monfalcone, opened at the same time5.

The early workers’ houses

In 1908 early houses were built in the shipyard in order to meet workers’ accommodation demand.

The building activity started quietly, in absence of any urban planning tool, with the aim of giving

response to pressing residence request of many workers. It would not have been possible to entrust

Municipality in resolving a problem vastly superior of its capability.

First recorded building dates back at January 1908 and refers to a “Project for a worker house to be

erected at Cosulich brothers’ Panzano shipyard” (ref. Fig. 2). The project is filed with Trieste M. A.

Stuparich construction company signature, in a period in which CNT company was not yet

established.

The project shows a three-floor-building with balcony accesses, divided in small dwellings with two

or three rooms each. The building has no special architectural and formal characteristics: it meets

the need to provide a stable shelter to employees’ families (probably coming from England) who

had started to offer their services in Panzano shipyard.

5 S. Benvenuti, Il Cantiere: storia e memoria, 1988.

Fig. 2: House with balcony accesses, January 1908 project. Section, main front, ground floor and 1st floor.

(courtesy of Monfalcone Municipality Historical Archive)

In March 1908, Stuparich construction company submits to Monfalcone Municipality the projects

for two two-storey house dormitories to be built in the Panzano shipyard, with balcony access,

characterized by five large rooms on the ground floor and six on first floor: every single large room

could hold probably five or six people (ref. Fig. 3).

Fig. 3: House with balcony accesses, March 1908 project. Section, main front, ground floor and 1st floor.

(courtesy of Monfalcone Municipality Historical Archive)

In December 1908 it was submitted a request for the realization of a “workers’ house dormitory to

be built at Cosulich brothers’ Panzano shipyard” (ref. Fig. 4). The building type is with balcony

access, very similar to the one few months earlier. An outside alley gives access to simple large

bedrooms: one toilet per floor is placed at the end of the alley. The building, unlike the previous

one, consists in three levels above ground.

Fig. 4: House with balcony accesses, December 1908 project. Main front, section, ground floor and 1st floor.

(courtesy of Monfalcone Municipality Historical Archive)

In 1911 it was submitted to Municipality a request for the realization of a residential building whose

type is quite different than the previous ones, called “House-barracks for workers’ families”. The

building consists in a storey-home type with four floors above ground; there are four small

dwellings per floor of about 25 sq.m, consisting of kitchen and bedroom. Though defined “house-

barracks”, the building is precisely characterized, thus it provides several sizes accommodation:

- three rooms and a kitchen,

- two rooms and a kitchen;

- one room and a kitchen,

with an area for common services and a laundry room too. Four similar buildings were located close

to the plant entrance (ref. Fig. 5).

Fig. 5: In the foreground, residential buildings built in 1911.

This picture was probably taken in the Twenties.(courtesy of Monfalcone Municipal Consortium)

The Worker Village and the Public Utility Building Association

In 1912 CNT company began the construction of those buildings which, still today, are one of the

most representative types of the Village, outlining urban characters of incoming District of

Panzano: a two-storey squared type, consisting of eight dwellings, about 50 sq.m. each, with their

own entrance, toilet and a small plot of garden. Building type references is found in some social

housing experiences carried out in Trieste, designed in 1899 by engineer Eugenio Geiringer6.

Those squared type buildings took place close to production area entrance, according to a square-

meshed street grid that should be considered the draft of District urban development (ref. Fig. 6, 7).

Fig. 6: Drawing for the eight-dwellings workers’ house project.

Crossed sections, main and lateral fronts, ground floor and 1st floor.

(courtesy of Monfalcone Municipality Historical Archive).

6 M. Zocconi, L'edilizia popolare nell'Ottocento a Trieste, 1968.

Fig. 7: Eight-dwellings squared-type buildings taken from the water tower, one of the most important

infrastructural project carried out in Panzano Village. (courtesy of Monfalcone Municipal Consortium)

In 1913 Public Utility Building Association was founded, a direct offshoot of CNT company who

had a stake of 115.000 crowns in the registered capital of 125.000; the Austrian Union of

Navigation had a 8.000 crowns participation, Monfalcone Navigation Company 2.000 crowns one.

Public Utility Building Association is delegated the task of the construction of buildings for

shipyard workers, in order to meet the growing demand for housing determined by the fast

development of the shipyard.

In this period, CNT company will set an urban plan for the creation of a District of remarkable

quality and size, with the aim of meeting the needs of a stable workforce, strongly rooted in

business involvement principles of which the shipbuilding industry owned by Cosulich brothers

was proponent.

The social aim of the new District, as stated in the Constitution of the Association itself, was to

“provide to lower classes public and healthy districts, both with the establishment or the purchase

of houses with minimal neighborhood under the law December 22nd

, 1910 and subsequent statute,

and with the rental of these houses – of individual neighborhoods to Monfalcone workers – to this

people […] and also […] of making possible for them the purchase, or the construction, of their

own homes [...]” 7.

From 1913 to 1915, 37 buildings, for a total of 189 dwellings, were built, each equipped with

garden, high-quality facilities, according to a recognizable concept of «garden city».

The main referent of the Public Utility Building Association was engineer Dante Fornasir

(Cervignano del Friuli 1882 – 1958), formerly Technical Director, then President of Association

itself; trained at Wien Polytechnical University, degreed in 1908, he devoted much of his

professional career to Panzano District planning and realization, and to a significant part of

Monfalcone shipyard facilities, infrastructures and plants. He performed his professional activity in

this Association until 1940, then he retired in Borgo Fornasir in native Cervignano, where he started

farming in a large plot after a long land reclamation action carried out by himself8.

District reconstruction and completion (1918-1927)

During First World War, Monfalcone and CNT shipyard suffered extensive damages, because of

their position near to Italian Kingdom – Austro-Hungarian Empire border; Monfalcone was twice

conquered by Italian army, while once reconquered by Imperial one. Since November 1918, at the

end of the First World War, Monfalcone and Trieste belonged to Italian Kingdom.

With business activity resumption in 1919, under the Italian Government, reconstruction of

shipyard production facilities took shape, and the program of Panzano Village workers’ houses

realization, under engineer Fornasir technical responsibility, restarted.

The implementation of this program concluded in 1927, the date of the inauguration of the District,

which included additional 193 new building for a total of 900 dwellings more and a large and

significant number of community services.

7 The Legal Deed of Public Utility Building Association constitution, and subsequent amendments, is

recorded at Monfalcone Municipality Historical Archives.

8 E. Valcovich, D. Barillari, Dante Fornasir, ingegnere. Cervignano del Friuli 1882-1958, 2011.

Fig. 8: General plan of the Panzano District in the Thirties. It is highlighted the importance

of the complex intervention and the clear separation between managers’ villas and the workers’ houses.

(courtesy of Monfalcone Municipality Historical Archive).

The District had “garden city” characters and maintained specific references of some urban models

that characterized the utopias of worker “paternalism” of the second half of 19th

century. The

District was equipped with required infrastructure network (streets, water supply, public outdoor

lighting, sewerage, etc.) and a large range of community services, unusual in that period, such as a

theater, public baths, a stadium for athletics and football, tennis courts, two major hotels of

remarkable interest, one for unmarried workers located in workers’ village, one for unmarried

employees in villas area (ref. Fig. 8).

The District was divided into two main areas:

- on one side, the old workers’ village consisting in several building types whose dwellings,

of various sizes, were destined to workers’ families;

- on the other one, buildings whose apartments were rented to employees and managers.

The building types are different for the size of individual dwelling, wealth and architectural quality:

while housing for workers are exemplarily sober, the managers and employees’ housing are more

refined in size and joint of indoor spaces. Dwellings and apartments had various sizes (from a

minimum of 40 sq.m to above 400 sq.m in managers’ villas) and were allocated to plant employees

in relation to their hierarchical position in the production system of the shipyard.

Even the smallest single accommodation has its own garden plot, suitable for vegetable farming; the

interesting architectural quality, both in workers’ and managers’ parts, refers to the use of different

styles and may be substantially related to historicism and eclectism canons (ref. Fig. 9-12).

Fig. 9: Eight-dwellings squared-type buildings with private garden.

(courtesy of Monfalcone Municipal Consortium)

Fig. 10: In the foreground, semi-detached house type; on background, squared-type houses

with common entrance. (courtesy of Monfalcone Municipal Consortium)

Fig. 11: Villa for managers. (courtesy of Monfalcone Municipal Consortium)

Fig. 12: Villa for managers. (courtesy of Monfalcone Municipal Consortium)

Certainly interesting are street furniture works such as gardens’ railings, public lighting stakes,

fountains in individual gardens, entrance gates and decorations in employees’ and managers’ villas.

To understand the nature and the significance of Panzano District, it is quoted the Report that eng.

Fornasir presented at District inauguration in June 1927. He argues that “the arrangement of the

buildings is extensive according to the garden city, thus avoiding urban overcrowding with its

drawbacks and leads people in the countryside to work, to dwell, to live a fuller life, fresher and

stronger in houses surrounded by air and sun […] In particular, there were built: 8 houses for

workers, each with eight dwellings of two rooms and a kitchen, with separate entrance from the

street; 14 houses for workers, each with eight dwellings of two rooms and kitchen, basement and

attic with common entrance; 29 semi-detached homes for workers, twin-coupled, consisting in three

rooms and a kitchen; 8 houses for workers, twin-coupled, of three rooms and livable kitchen [...]”.

This report by engineer Fornasir perfectly describes the workers’ village part and highlights its key

features; then, it continues with managers and employees part referring to “elegant buildings […];

each of them shows different layouts of the rooms and architectural styles, grouped together

sunnily, cheerfully and coquettishly […] In particular there are 16 twin-coupled houses for

employees, consisting in a kitchen, 3 rooms and ancillary rooms, basement and attic; 8 twin-

coupled houses for employees, made up of 4 to 6 rooms, ancillary rooms, basement and attic; 2

collective urban-type houses, in multiple neighborhoods with 15 houses consisting of 3 up to 5

rooms, kitchen, basement, attic, 7 rooms for shops and a photography studio, and a house of 8

dwellings”.

The report in the magazine La Casa, published in Milan in June 1924, is interesting yet because it

summarizes the intervention of the shipyard in Monfalcone: “The houses of Building Association in

Panzano are one of the few successes reportable in Italy in the construction of Garden Villages.

The success appears in the fact that workers’ families living in them take ownership with love of

their home, looking after the adjacent small vegetable garden and regularly paying, without any

complain, the not slight rent fee [...]”.

The key feature of the Panzano District is the extraordinary number and quality of community

services provided.

The Theater, called Euripides in the early project drawings, opened in December 1920 with a

performance of music and prose, in presence of District inhabitants and of many authorities and

other guests arrived from Trieste with a steamer designed for the special event. Allowing a capacity

of 480 seats, the Theater was part of a more complex building, including 256 mini dwellings for

employees and workers, then public baths equipped with a swimming pool, laundry and ironing

services (ref. Fig. 13).

Fig. 13: Main façade of the Theater, dated 1920. (courtesy of Monfalcone Municipality Historical Archive)

On the main façade of the building standed out the Theater central structure, with an entrance

arcade characterized by pairs of columns and Ionic semi-columns, supporting the entablature

defined by an important molding. The two side wings were decorated with horizontal dichromate

strips in Romanesque-Byzantine style, while a white and black chess strip repeated embellishments

of Secessionist reference. The Theater was characterized by a remarkable decorative strip above the

proscenium and on adjacent wings above stages, consisting of a painting series by painter Vito

Timmel (Wien 1886 – Trieste 1949) depicting several characters and playwrights. A particularly

intense bombing in March 1945 irreparably damaged the building, later destroyed. Fortunately

Timmel works were saved and recently restored and returned intact to Monfalcone Municipality9.

9 F. Marri, Vito Timmel. Il Teatro di Panzano, 2002.

The two buildings for Unmarried Employees’ Hotel, placed in managers’ villas area, and for

Unmarried Workers’ Hotel, in workers’ village, are remarkable too.

The Unmarried Employees’ Hotel is certainly one of the more significant for size and architectural

features. Built in 1920, it had 120 rooms and was equipped with large spaces for reading rooms,

pools, conference and restaurants. The building had characters of eclectic architecture, often used

mainly in managers’ villas design. The decorations depicted underneath roof overhang, oval-

shaped, are very interesting and represent arts and crafts of that time; the ovals were woven in cups

containing fruits ad outputs of agriculture work. The result is remarkable in terms of symbolism: the

farm economy, represented by cups full of earth fruits, is interwoven with the signs of industrial

works in a new perspective of land development.

The building is of considerable interest in the use of various technologies and building materials,

partly usual, partly innovative for that period (ref. Fig. 14).

Fig. 14: Unmarried Employees’ Hotel in the early Twenties.

(courtesy of Monfalcone Municipal Consortium)

The load-bearing envelope is made in masonry solid brick walls, while the middle structure refers to

reinforced concrete technology. Floors are supported by wooden, concrete or steel beams. The

building has been recently refurbished (2009) and partly took over, again, its original hotel

functions.

The Unmarried Workers’ Hotel building, currently in renovation phase, was located close to

Theater and public baths, designed in 1920 and consisting in 700 rooms (ref. Fig. 15).

The quadrangular floor plan shape, including six internal courtyards, offers four façades bordered

by angular bodies with giant order pilasters, ending at 3rd

floor ledge on the molding that treads the

whole perimeter. The building has four floors, a basement and an attic; on the ground floor took

place the entrance, kitchen, dining room, bar, pool halls, various services such as a cobbler and a

barber.

Fig. 15: Unmarried Workers’ Hotel in the early Twenties.

(courtesy of Monfalcone Municipal Consortium)

The farm complex, producing food (meat, eggs, vegetables) to sustain workers’ and employees’

families, was built in 1919-1920; it consisted of two stables, a henhouse and a barn. The complex

shows an architectural carefulness unusual in buildings for agricultural production; it was supported

by a hewn stone basement with a wooden trussed roof. The overall formal result was very accurate

in details and denoted a precise compliance with functions it had to meet (ref. Fig. 16).

Fig. 16: Farm complex; henhouse project. (courtesy of Monfalcone Municipality Historical Archive)

The Bathhouse was part of the numerous services that characterized the Panzano District and gave

it signs of a clear and cohesive community; the Bathhouse was intended to accommodate

employees’ children during summer and took place on the coast, few kilometers far from the

District itself (ref. Fig. 17).

Fig. 17: Bathhouse for employees. (courtesy of Monfalcone Municipal Consortium)

In 1926 was finally inaugurated the Stadium for football and athletics. Its architecture is clearly

characterized by shown symbolism typical, in that period, of regime architecture, particularly

represented by the four towers located at the main entrance façade (ref. Fig. 18).

Fig. 18: Stadium for football and athletics. (courtesy of Monfalcone Municipal Consortium)

Finally, it has to be remembered the great care that characterized the set of street furniture of the

whole Panzano District: the water distribution facilities located in individual gardens, the public

lighting stakes, made in reinforced concrete of a classical style that recalled popular experiences

and models in other European countries, the interesting enclosures of the managers’ villas made

with wrought iron panels of various design and those of the workers’ houses, in reinforced concrete

panels of exquisite secessionist design.

In summary, the Panzano Village is a district with great historical and architectural interest,

characterized by a strongly innovative urban design, well structured into remarkable variety of types

of houses and dwellings and an extraordinary quality of social services.

Conclusions

The District is nowadays subjected to an urban planning with the aim to preserve the original

architectural and urban values.

Most of the residential buildings, originally intended to the workers, were subjected to recovery

actions that have essentially preserved original characters.

The consciousness of the historical and architectural value of the District and the renovation and

valorization actions of the original buildings cluster is by now substantially spread. This work is

developed with a long series of actions (Shipyard Museum, valorization of original District design,

technical and informative publications, etc.) that allow you imaging, about the same District, a

substantial approach inversion, compared to the one that previously led to the brink of no

identification of Panzano Village architectural and urban planning.

Bibliography

− Benvenuti S., Il Cantiere: storia e memoria, in In Cantiere, Tecnica Arte e Lavoro.

Ottant'anni di attività nello stabilimento di Monfalcone. Monfalcone, 1988.

− Marri F., Vito Timmel. Il Teatro di Panzano. Consorzio Culturale del Monfalconese, Arti

Grafiche Stella, Trieste, 2002.

− Mellinato G., Cosulich. Dinastia Adriatica, Silvana Editore, Cinisello Balsamo (MI) 2008.

− Valcovich E., Barillari D., Dante Fornasir, ingegnere. Cervignano del Friuli 1882-1958.

Exhibition catalog. Regione Autonoma Friuli Venezia Giulia, 2011 (reprint).

− Zocconi M., L'edilizia popolare nell'Ottocento a Trieste, in L'Ingegnere. Organo

dell'Associazione Nazionale Ingegneri ed Architetti Italiani, n.11, 1968.