Tremosine Through Time: A Photographic Journey into Local History

It is a book “written” by many images, to tell the story of a territory: a tribute to past characters, a valuable testimony for new generations.

Content and authors

“Following the traces of memory,” the publication promoted by Biblioteca comunale and Pro Loco di Tremosine, with the support of the Municipality, offers readers a series of photographs from Tremosine’s past, divided by sectors.

The volume was put together by enthusiasts of local history, such as Giuseppe Rossi and Vittorio Turri, along with Clara Pilotti Delaini who, despite not being born in Tremosine, has known and experienced the local reality for many years and has been the driving force behind numerous initiatives ranging from exhibitions to publications and conferences.

Structure and topics covered

The ten chapters that comprise the book provide testimonies about the specific realities of the Altogardesano municipality.

They feature the towns, accompanied by the characters. Then, an important chapter dedicated to cable cars (used to transfer people and materials from the lake to the plateau, as well as valuable correspondence), followed by the road, built between 1906 and 1913.

Other insights concern the Val di Brasa and the mountain. But significant sectors are also represented by the economy, starting with the cotton mill (which in the early 1900s employed over 1,000 people), continuing with the wave of emigration still remembered by many.

Then, the nostalgia for the Great War and local groups.

Origin and purpose of the book

The book, now available in distribution, was born “as a natural continuation of the photographic reproduction exhibition held in the summer of 2000”, as Clara Pilotti Delaini explains.

She adds: “We are sure that only the inhabitants of Tremosine, precious and irreplaceable custodians of memory, can be the protagonists of this fascinating journey into their past, which is not a finished world, but is inside us, like a deep root that helps us live the present with awareness.”.

Images and visual memories

The series of images is presented in a truly interesting way and allows rediscovery of corners of the territory that have now acquired a completely different, or almost different, appearance.

Pieve, Villa, Voltino, and Vesio are depicted as they appeared a century ago.

Likewise, evocative are the steps taken by the postman – in the 1920s – distributing correspondence to Priezzo.

The images also include notable figures who brought a turning point to the town.

Focus on the Feltrinelli Cotton Mill

A particularly special page is dedicated to the Feltrinelli cotton mill, which later became “Olcese Veneziano”.

In Campione (the only lakefront hamlet), it was active from 1896 to 1981.

The so-called “village-factory” employed hundreds of people, many of whom spent their entire working lives there.

The text concludes with photos related to World War I, mountain exploitation by charcoal burners and lumberjacks, and images of some social activities: the social dairy, the marching band, the tailoring school, and corn shelling.