Who thinks otherwise

Sentences without a label are documented facts; the others are marked "probable" or "uncertain".

On the Orco, on the forges and on the factories the sources do not always say the same thing: where and when Canava disappeared, whether the Orco was a river of gold, when the Castellaro forge was born and when it closed, what the Cuorgnè censuses of 1961 and 1971 say, whether today's hot forging comes from the tilt hammers. This page sets the positions side by side with the names of those who hold them and says what would be needed to decide.

Canava and the flood of the year one thousand

According to the tradition reported by Pagliotti in 1906, a flood of the Orco destroyed “almost all the metal works between Rordilitegna and Corte Canava”; Canon Colombo dates it to 1030, “not before 1028” uncertain. Again according to Pagliotti, the last houses of Canava disappeared in another flood, in 1378 uncertain. Bertolotti, in 1873, thinks that Valperga and other villages were born from the ruin of Canava and reports the popular etymology of Cuorgnè from a drowned court, which the dictionary of place names does not confirm uncertain. According to the same Bertolotti, Colombo placed the swept-away metal works in the Geras area, “towards Pont” uncertain.

Bertotti, in 1983, is more cautious: he writes only that Canava appears in the historians “until about 1030” and that it would then have disappeared because of a flood. The “Canature” stream which for Pagliotti brought the flood never existed for Bertotti. Troisi thinks it possible that Canava stood in the Goriti area, flooded again in 1993 uncertain. The Cuorgnè museum identifies the Curtis Canava with the area of Roman finds between Valperga, the Orco and Cuorgnè and leaves the cause of its end open: a natural event or destruction in war probable.

To decide, a document of the time on the end of Canava would be needed: the sources read have none, the date of 1030 is late and comes from tradition uncertain.

Sources: Troisi 1997, pp. 8, 12-13, 22, 33; Museo Archeologico del Canavese 2016, p. 7

The golden water

A Turin municipal magazine of the Twenties or Thirties explains the name of the valley as “golden water”, “perhaps” because of the veins worked in ancient times, without giving sources uncertain. Wikipedia calls the torrent “Eva d'òr” in Piedmontese and speaks of gold-bearing sands worked in ancient times, without an ancient source uncertain. Pagliotti writes in 1906 that the Orco was “already mentioned by Pliny”, but does not give the passage. In the sources read no ancient text links the Orco to the Salassi or to gold: the gold of the Salassi concerns the Dora Baltea and the Bessa uncertain.

The gold of the Orco enters the documents instead in the Middle Ages. The statutes of Pont and the Valleys of 1346 speak of washing gold in the sands of the torrents (“gavandum aurum”) and of dues paid in gold and in iron. To decide on its antiquity, the passage of Pliny that Pagliotti does not quote would be needed.

Sources: Turin municipal magazine, p. 93; Wikipedia, entry Orco; Troisi 1997, p. 12; Pipino, online page; Cima 2025a, p. 35

The Castellaro forge: when it was born, when it closed

The Park dates the forge to the “18th century”, Bussi links it to the inscription of 1675; Bussi also places in the 18th century the first records of metalworking in the Val Soana. Cima instead finds the “fussina di Pietro Ferraris” already in the forties of the 17th century: 1675 records the purchase and enlargement of a forge that already existed. On its origin Cima himself is not consistent: he says it was built “after the middle of the 16th century”, founded by Ferraris “after the middle of the century”, that is of the 17th, or shortly after Vercellis's visit of 1646-47 uncertain. According to Cima the battery of two tilt hammers might be Ferraris's and the one of three Calvi's uncertain.

The end too has several dates. Bussi writes that the forge worked until 1950; the Park says “until the beginning of the Fifties” and, in its historical note, until 1952 uncertain. The Park and Bussi do not rule out that the forge made war material at some periods, especially in the Napoleonic age uncertain; the Park says so also of the forges of Locana, Sparone, Pont and Cuorgnè, without citing the source probable. To decide, the archive documents of the forge would be needed, which the sources read do not cite.

Sources: Parco Gran Paradiso 2024, pp. 1-2; Bussi 2026, pp. 25, 53; Cima 2025a, pp. 42-43, 45, 57, 68, 91, 191; Cima 2025b, p. 151

Signorelli: from where and since when

Casalis has Giovanni Domenico Signorelli arrive at Cuorgnè in 1560 and other texts repeated it; Bertolotti gives 1652 and for Cima the deed of division confirms it. On his origin Bertolotti writes that he arrived with “considerable sums, earned in the territory of Lecco”; Cima says he came from the State of Milan and, at another point, “perhaps” from the Brianza. Glaudo Calvi too, the owner of Castellaro, is for Cima from Como and at one point from Lecco.

On the first works Cima writes once of a forge for working copper with a smelting hearth, another time of “a first copper forge and then a second one for iron” probable. That Signorelli also made parts of firearms is a supposition of Cima's, without direct data uncertain.

Sources: Cima 1981, pp. 109, 123; Cima 2025a, pp. 45, 57, 107, 109; Cima 2025b, pp. 140, 149-150

The Manifattura, the power stations and the railway

For the ERIH page and for Cima the Cuorgnè Cotton Mill (Manifattura) was built between 1872 and 1874; the Cuorgnè museum writes that it was “inaugurated in 1882”. The power of the steam engine is given in the same book as “4 boilers of 400 hp” and as “from 600 to 700 hp” uncertain. The power stations change too: Valle dates from 1928 at Bandono di Cuorgnè or was in operation from 1930 at Gorassi di Castellamonte, Campore Alto dates from 1948 or was in operation from 1949 uncertain. For the AEM plant at Bardonetto the test of 1953 finds a head of 126.70 m, the AEM publication writes 128 m.

Paviolo writes that the railway reached Cuorgnè in 1872. The book on the Manifattura tells another story: in 1872 the horse-drawn line reaches Rivarolo, between Rivarolo and Cuorgnè a steam tramway runs from 1884 and the railway opens to the public on 1 July 1906. The book on the Manifattura tells each step with its dates.

Sources: ERIH, online page; Cima 2025b, p. 227; Abà et al. 1995, pp. 28, 39, 113-118, 123, 311, 341, 344; Museo Archeologico del Canavese 2016, p. 3; Regione Piemonte 2025, p. 2; AEM, p. 18; Cima 2025a, p. 166; Paviolo, p. 61

Ceramics: Pagliero, the school, the clay

For Giorda and for Cima the Pagliero factory was born in 1814, founded by Enrico Pagliero in the Morlino district; the Abbonamento Musei page says so too probable. The press release of the 2017 Exhibition writes instead that the complex stands where the Pagliero Michele manufactory was born “at the end of the eighteenth century”. The two dates need to be reconciled uncertain. The water for its wheel also has two versions: Giorda places the factory along the mill race, Cima writes that the wheel was fed by the Canale di Caluso uncertain.

For the head of the art high school the Scuola d'Arte was established in 1922; an article of 2026 speaks of a school “founded at the end of the 19th century” probable. The 2017 press release places the quarries of the “castelletti” at Sant'Anna Boschi, Cima in the area of the hamlet of Filia. Turismo Torino writes that red earth “develops at the end of the 18th century”, but the land register of 1499 already names two kilns. To decide, the founding deed of the Pagliero factory and the registers of the school would be needed.

Sources: Giorda 1992, p. 4; Cima 2025b, pp. 163, 242-243; Abbonamento Musei, online page; press release of the Exhibition 2017, pp. 4, 6; newsistruzione 2026; Turismo Torino, online page

The dates of the machines

Cima is the main source on the machines, but at different points he gives different dates. The first batteries of tilt hammers belong to the 18th century, to the second half of the 16th century or to the 17th century; at Ceresole Cima links a battery of two tilt hammers to the document of 1568 uncertain. The trompe (water-powered blower) appears at the end of the 16th century, in the 17th century or in the 18th century; a trompe already exists in a Ligurian valuation of 1619 or 1621 and its wide spread is seen towards the middle of the 18th century uncertain. Cima places the spread of drop hammers at the end of the 19th century, but publishes the 1812 drawing from Cuorgnè with a drop hammer driven by a water wheel uncertain.

Two proposals remain declared hypotheses. Cima links the revival of copper in the 15th century to the arrival of “donkey-head” tilt hammers uncertain; he proposes to date the tilt hammers from their stone uprights, rough before the 18th century and finished after uncertain.

Sources: Cima 2024, pp. 137, 176, 192, 204-205, 214, 222-224; Cima 2025a, pp. 37-38, 112, 191

The Cuorgnè censuses, 1961-1971

In 1961 at Cuorgnè 1,128 workers are employed in 6 units building means of transport and 351 in 59 engineering workshops. In 1971 means of transport count 228 workers in 16 units, the engineering units are 59 with 1,257 workers. The figures say what changes, not why. The classes of the two censuses do not coincide: at Rivarolo in 1961 the engineering workshops and the units of machinery and metal structures are counted separately, in 1971 only the engineering units remain. Comparisons between the two years are therefore only indicative probable.

Whether the workers moved from one class to another, whether a factory was counted in a different way or whether there were closures and openings, the sources read do not say. To decide, the histories of the individual firms and the 1951 figures by municipality would be needed, which the volume consulted does not have uncertain.

Sources: ISTAT 1961, pp. 78, 112; ISTAT 1971, pp. 103, 151; ISTAT 1951, p. 1

Does hot forging descend from the tilt hammers?

The Region writes in 2013 that between Castellamonte, Cuorgnè, Rivarolo and Ciriè hot forging (closed-die) of steel and car parts remain the prevailing sectors. That forging comes from the old forges the portal considers only probable and only in part probable. The evidence lies in the Gallenca valley. The mill of San Colombano, around the Twenties of the 20th century, becomes a mechanical forge and then a hot forging workshop on the same drop of water; the Batassa forge, at Prascorsano, in the last decades before 1980 became a forging industry. At Valperga the Uzane forge, with a “donkey-head” tilt hammer, becomes an engineering workshop in 1875.

For the forges of the Orco a direct link is not documented probable. We do not know whether magnins or forge workers from the valleys worked in the first forging workshops uncertain. The documented passage goes from copper to the car, not to forging: from 1900-1901 the copper beaters of Alpette enter the Turin car body works. To decide, a history of the passage from the forges to today's firms would be needed, and it is missing uncertain.

Sources: Regione Piemonte 2013, p. 6; Cima 1981, p. 127, cards 08SC, 09PR and 03VA; ISTAT 1971, p. 103; Paviolo, p. 92

“Ruga” and “rogi”

Nigra records copper in the jargon as “rogi”, “the red one”. The Park and Cima call the coppersmiths of the valley “ruga”. For Paviolo “ruga” might come from the Val Soana dialect “la ruge”, the red one, that is copper; he recalls, however, that in Piedmontese the ruga is an aromatic herb and that in the argot of the Turin underworld it means “pimp”. According to Ciravegna, quoted by Paviolo, “il ruga” is the coppersmith-tinsmith and “la ruga” his jargon. Nigra does not explain where “ruga” comes from; the derivation from copper remains a hypothesis of Paviolo's.

Sources: Nigra 1874, p. 57; Parco Gran Paradiso 2024, p. 2; Cima 2025a, pp. 83, 145; Paviolo, pp. 85-86

Other dates in disagreement

• The flood of the Podio works: 1845 for the work by Sala quoted by Troisi, October 1845 or “1845/6” in the book on the Manifattura, 1846 for Cima; the flood of October 1846 on the bridge tips the balance towards 1846 uncertain.
• The fall of Cuorgnè in the Tuchinaggio: in 1391 for the museum, “in December 1390” for Cima.
• The castle of Malgrà: 1333-1336 for Carta, “in the first quarter of the 14th century” for the museum uncertain.
• The Canale di Caluso: 1556-1559 for the FAI, 1558-59 for Porro and Romanoni uncertain.
• The statutes of Pont on metal: of 1347 in one book by Cima, of 1346 in another.
• The Piova ramera: it passes to Michele Bianco at the end of the 17th century or in the Napoleonic age uncertain; the ore comes from Traversella or from the Val di Brosso uncertain.
• The Pont forges of 1551: below the Tellario along the Orco or on the Soana, where the Manifattura stands today uncertain.
• The Pont cotton mill: it was born in the second or in the third decade of the 19th century uncertain.
• Agliè: silk ends in the Forties of the 20th century or in 1932; Blumer sells in 1896 or founds in 1896 uncertain.
• The forges of 1752: 24 large and 43 small in the table, 24 and 53 in the village-by-village description.
• The Ribordone forge: “preserved in good condition” for Bussi, of unknown production for Cima uncertain.
• Jeans: the cloth of Pont “seems” to have contributed to their birth; it is a curiosity, not a proof uncertain.

Sources: Troisi 1997, pp. 28-29; Abà et al. 1995, pp. 20, 27; Cima 2025a, pp. 41, 45-47, 120, 173, 189; Museo Archeologico del Canavese 2016, pp. 3, 17; Carta 2023, p. 99; FAI, online page; Porro, Romanoni 2001, pp. 1-2; Cima 2025b, pp. 95, 145, 155, 173, 225-228, 238, 243-244; Cima 2024, p. 55; Residenze Reali Sabaude, online page; Mole24 2025; Bussi 2026, p. 25