ABSTRACT
What remains of old water mills, paper mills, icehouses and country kilns is the ever more meagre residue of an industrial proto-history that was supplanted at the turn of the 20th century in Abruzzo by more modern, precise production equipment, which itself has become outdated and obsolete in the span of a few decades, by passing time and circumstance. Indeed, the route of the Adriatic railway, built soon after the Unification of Italy, shifted the axis of interest of a local economy that was once connected by rivers and drove roads, towards the coast, and started a new chapter of the region’s history that would be decisive for the reorganisation of the territory and the redistribution of its resources. This contribution aims to provide an account of the historical heritage that sustained Abruzzo’s industry for a long period of time, focusing in particular on assets in a state of preservation that promises them a future, which is as possible as it is desirable for the assets themselves and the communities they belong to.
