DESCRIPTION

Today, Fabriano is a cultural town. Since 2013 it has been in the list of UNESCO’s Creative Cities included in the category “Crafts and Folk Art”, a title recognized especially thanks to the production of handmade paper, a worldwide pride since the 13th century. Fabriano was one of the most ancient Italian towns that produced paper. Here, the hydraulics hammer mill, watermark, and sizing with animal gelatine, for example, were all invented. Thanks to these innovations the industry had a great development in the 14th and 15th centuries, when there were at least forty workshops. Today, the magic of those centuries can be relived in the Museum of Paper and Watermark in Fabriano, where it is possible to follow the entire life-cycle: from the arrival and storage of rags in "hip", to the dispatch of finished paper bales to Italian and European usage centres. An essential raw material for the production of the paper is the "rag", which arrives in Fabriano from various neighbouring centres, packed in tightened bales with hemp ropes. The industrial tradition of Fabriano’s territory can then see the elements that launched it in the international market in white goods and extractor hoods for kitchens. The productive system of Fabriano in fact strongly developed in the second half of the last century around this thriving mechanical engineering industry, exporting its appliances, hoods, moulds and other products of related industries all over the world. Alongside the larger companies, there are firms which make parts of the production or components, small and medium enterprises for the coverage of the cycle of the component cycle from engines to filters, to moulds.