L'industria tessile nella conurbazione Gallarate - Busto Arsizio - Legnano ieri e oggi

In the IXth century influential merchants families, often titled, established the first factories that thanks to their productive specialization gave an industrial and urban identity to the different towns: Legnano with large scale factories, Busto Arsizio with small family owned laboratories and medium size works connected to the master’s villas, Gallarate a real commerces, communications crossroad. The textile industry decline brought a period of decadence first, and a urban renewal after. The main example is the massive intervention plan directed by Renzo Piano on the old cotton mill Cantoni in Legnano.