Historical Library

Canale Michelotti dalla Stura ai Regi Opifici

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The small archive concerns a project of water derivation from the Stura to the Regi Opifici, subsidiary to the Martinetto canal (also called, in its final section, the Molassi), developed in the year 1822, followed by a long period of checks and measurements that lasted until 1828 and not realized. The engineer Ignazio Michelotti, already author, in 1816, of the homonymous canal downstream of the Napoleonic bridge over the Po, compiled the "instructions", but also the engineers Tommaso Bonvicini and G. M. Gallinati played an important role in the project.
The work was considered necessary to strengthen the quantity of regular water destined for the production of energy through water wheels, at a time of particular development of the "forge of reeds" that is, the arms factory built in 1715 and active until the early 20th century, located in the Valdocco area, near Turin (current Ottone Rosai and Enrico Gamba courses); the use of water was also aimed at encouraging the milling and industrial plants of Borgo Dora. The project included two sections: the first would have developed from the "port of Altessano" (corresponding to the current Venaria Reale, Marchese chapel area) up to the Tempia farmhouse (current Rebaudengo area), the second from the Tempia farmhouse to the Royal forge of reeds. The archive, whose origins and origins (in the 1960s) are not documented in the Library, is divided into three parts: technical reports and projects, administrative measures and related correspondence. The author of the inventory is presumed to have been Aldo di Ricaldone.