The industrial archaeology site “symbol of the Piana del Sele”, as defined by Gillo Dorfles
| The complex of the former Tobacco Factory, just 1,000 meters from the archaeological area and located in Borgo Cafasso, a rural center built at the beginning of the last century and developed around the production plants, is finally available to the City of Capaccio Paestum.
The prestigious testimony of industrial archaeology is a material remnant of the past, which attests the progressive evolution of technology and the consequent change in the surrounding agricultural landscape. Industrial archaeology, indeed, allows us to rediscover the origins of modern society, retracing the process of current progress: the old factories can thus revive the memory of the men who worked there and especially the female work of the “tobacconists”. Over twenty years ago, a historical-urban planning and design survey, born on the proposal of architect Fausto Martino, as part of a thesis research of the Faculty of Architecture of Naples and developed according to the guidelines provided by the BAPPSAE Superintendence itself, formulated a proposal for restoration and conversion to a fair-exhibition center for the promotion of local productive supply chains.
The former Tobacco Factory, which had been magnified as one of the greatest expressions of industrial archaeology in the Piana del Sele by Gillo Dorfles, one of the most attentive, cultured and sophisticated artistic personalities of the twentieth century, represents an admirable example of how at the beginning of the 1920s the entrepreneurial initiative, first in the fruit and vegetable sector, then with the introduction of the tobacco industry, represented a significant stimulus for the development of settlements in the Piana del Sele. The Mediterranean Exchange of Archaeological Tourism was born in 1998, thanks to the Province of Salerno, then chaired by Alfonso Andria, who wanted to strongly support the intuition of the Founder and Director Ugo Picarelli, seeing in the initiative a strategic opportunity to enhance the archaeological area of Paestum, which had been recognized, in that year, a World Heritage Site, thanks to the extraordinary commitment of Andria himself, who in 1997 had also achieved the recognition of the Amalfi Coast. The first editions up to 2012 and the last ones, in 2018 and 2019, were held in hotels about 6 km from the archaeological area, while from 2013 to 2017 in tensile structures and geodesic domes near the Unesco site.
The new location, which on the occasion of the landing during World War Two was used by the Allied Forces as the headquarters of Commander Clark and then as military hospital, represents the economic and social history of the territory and therefore perfectly appropriate to carry out the new function of cultural infrastructure for its service and its development.
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Capaccio Paestum has one more structure at its disposal. – said Mayor Franco Alfieri – We have expressed interest in the acquisition of the former Tobacco Factory complex by leasing, with the specific aim of buying the property as soon as possible. We did it not only for the important historical-cultural value of the building, but also to be able to make another space available to the community, a prestigious and impressive container to be used to carry out activities of public interest at the height of history and splendor of the City of Capaccio Paestum, since the next edition of the Mediterranean Exchange of Archaeological Tourism“.
