The Tobacco Factory and Cafasso township, a centuries-old love story
The birth of the Cafasso township is closely linked to the birth and development of the industrial site now known as the tobacco factory. The story is really intriguing and fascinating.
It all began in February 1922, when Gaetano Bonvicini, an officer in the Savoy Navy and heir to “Massalombarda S.p.A.,” during one of his business trips to the south of the country, noticed that fruit production in the Paestum area was far ahead of the family business.
He decided to open a canning industry within walking distance of the archaeological site of Paestum, on the Cafasso estate. To this end he purchased 350 hectares of land owned by Marquis Vincenzo di Pinto and Maria Belleli.
Bonvicini began to reclaim the surrounding marshy and brackish lands due to the non-existent hydraulic accommodation of the waters of “Capo di Fiume,” enabling the eradication of malaria.
However, the work proved to be more problematic than previously thought; due to the presence of a layer of travertine, also known as “tessone,” a stone typical of the area with which the ancient Posidonia was built, at a depth of about one meter from ground level.
In addition to the reclamation works, the masonry works of the rectangular, three-level concrete building were also completed.
The building is built according to the Hennebique method and contains in addition to the fruit warehouse, the processing room for about 100 female workers, cold storage rooms, as well as the ice factory to refrigerate the fruit placed in the wagons destined for the markets.
In addition, on the west side, a livestock center was built with a stable with completely new features, capable of housing about 200 adult cattle.
Subsequently, five dwellings were built, three for employees and two for management and administrative staff, the church and a daycare center for working mothers.
A road connecting the company to the National Road (now Via Magna Grecia), a road connecting the built-up area of Capaccio Scalo to the archaeological area of Paestum, was also built, and a track about 1,500 meters long was constructed to connect the processing warehouse to the station.
Taking advantage of the slope, fruit on wagons were pulled by Maremma horses and arrived at the Capaccio Scalo train station.
The fruit produced by the Bonvicini industry began to be exported throughout Europe.
The Tobacconist
Upon the untimely death of Gaetano Bonvicini, the company was purchased by Carmine De Martino, owner of SAIS (Societa Agricola Industriale Salernitana), a member of the House of Fasci, then a member of parliament several times and a Christian Democrat undersecretary after World War II.
From 1935, S.A.I.S., Società Agricola Industriale Salernitana was given a special concession to grow tobacco in the province of Salerno, and in particular also in the municipality of Capaccio, to be then delivered and handled in private warehouses. There are 645.63 hectares under cultivation, yielding 12,763 quintals of tobacco and an approximate raw tobacco value of 5,105,800 lira.
Three types of tobacco began to be grown: Burley, Maryland, and Levantine.
Carmine De Martino announced in 1935 the merger of SAIS with Società An. Stabilimenti Riuniti Tabacchi Americani, which changed its name to SAIM , Società Agricola Industriale Meridionale.
In a letter from SAIM to the Provincial Council of Corporate Economy of Salerno, Carmine De Martino announced the start of construction of an industrial building for tobacco drying and curing on the Cafasso estate.
Another building was added to the primitive production facility built by Bonvicini; this one, standing on the same line as the building constructed in 1925, consists of three volumes connected in a “C” shape.
The cadastral map of 1936 shows the building as consisting of two cores: to the north is the C.A. factory built by Bonvicini flanked, to the east, by the chapel while on the other three sides extends the “C”-shaped body in C.A. and perforated brick infill
On the west side, the church, school and seven dwellings, for the families of the tobacco factory workers, also appear.
The new shed creates a kind of central courtyard, such a facility is typical of industrial types for tobacco processing: the open central courtyard was a solution that allows tobacco leaves to be dried in the sun during the first stage of processing.
Recurring features of such architecture are also the considerable height (in this case 14m without horizontal divisions), from which the expression “tobacco cathedral” will later derive, and a large number of windows, both on the upper and lower floors that allow for adequate regulation of air humidity and ventilation.
Another element that we find in this, as in other SAIM factories in the Sele Plain, is the dense wooden weave under the canopy, which forms a plane on which to hang the spiked stakes: on the weaves are arranged the winches to raise the “festoons” (the ropes that hold the spiked stakes to which the leaves have been strung).
On May 1, 1938, Msgr. Raffaele De Giuli, bishop of Capaccio and Vallo della Lucania, inaugurated the square, the church dedicated to Our Lady of Mount Carmel and the school.
In addition, the farmhouses were completed and the land was subdivided into lots of 10-15 ha, granted in sharecropping to the workers’ families.
The five buildings constructed between the square and the industrial complex were completed, which, with their very simple architectural lines, vegetable garden and small orchard surrounding them, reflect the typically rural character of the site and testify, with the mosquito nets on the windows and verandas, to the still-living fear of the anopheles, eradicated a few years ago with the reclamation of the Head of River marshes and the channelization of its waters.
Work was also completed on the three employee dwellings built on the right side of the square and the two buildings on either side of the church; while the latter reflect the more common public housing directives of the regime, the three semi-detached residences, except for their wide sloping roofs, reflect, with their large corner windows and clear interior floor plan layout, more up-to-date references to the experiences of Italian rationalist architecture.
The war function
In September 1943 when the Allies landed in Salerno, General Mark Wayne Clark, commander of the 5th Army established the temporary headquarters of the U.S. Forces inside the tobacco factory. Fortunately, the complex did not suffer significant damage, other than the interruption of the normal production cycle.
In 1960-61, on the north side, the concrete block with curved cover, used for “padding,” was built. In this way, the two cores (the former Bonvicini factory and the S.A.I.M. shed ) were united into a single, albeit uneven, body.
In 1961, Tabacina blight destroyed the entire national crop. In 1960-70, a new type of tobacco resistant to blight was introduced.
Tobacco production dropped from 65,000/70,000 quintals in 1961 to 60,000 in 1969-70.
In 1970 there were 400 tobacco farmers in Capaccio growing Burley and Levantini on an area of 230 hectares.
New life at the tobacco factory, Next is born.
In 2001, however, he ceased operations. In 2002, entrepreneur Domenico Caprino purchased the property from the De Martino family. An initial design was submitted to the municipality. The proposal, which called for 25 housing units, was not accepted.
In 2007, after the presentation of the Recovery Plan, a private initiative, the Superintendence, following an inspection, activated the procedure for the declaration of cultural interest of the real estate complex, “an example of admirable industrial archaeology and evidence of an entrepreneurial activity that has developed over the course of about 70 years in the Sele Plain.”
Today following various bankruptcy vicissitudes, the former tobacco factory has been acquired by the municipality of Capaccio Paestum, taking care of its reclamation and renovation, and earmarking it as a venue for various cultural initiatives. The former tobacco factory, which throughout its centuries-long history has been a propeller of the labor activity of the entire Sele plain, thus continues by the public body to carry out its cultural and economic propelling action with a new name: NEXT, New Exhibition Former Tobacco Factory.
