O’ Cantiere

or, Naples’ troubled history with steel and coal

Naples is among the most densely populated cities in Europe.
From any panoramic point one can witness an apparently endless succession of
buildings and church domes, often sitting precariously on the side of the hills that
make up the city’s geography.

The Bagnoli district, however, is a remarkable exception. In a matter

of a mere pedestrian crossing, a relatively sprawling residential neighbourhood
suddenly turns into a barren wasteland reminiscent of post-apocalyptic fiction
developed just in the space of a two-way road, surrounded by walls which reveal
from time to time glimpses of skeletons made of steel and concrete.

The remnants of Bagnoli steel factories. From its inauguration in 1910 to its final
demise in 2000 with the sale of its last components to Thai investors, this
industrial district played a large parte in shaping Naples’ social and economic
landscape, going through two world wars, the post-war economic boom, and the
transition to the dominance of service-based industries in the Western world.
However, since its closure in 1994, virtually nothing has changed, both from a
visual and from a social point of view. To the detriment of the inhabitants of the
neighbourhood and of those who looked after its reconversion.

This photographic project aims to document the effects of this twenty years
long social fallout.
Naples, 2016 - The remains of the LD steel mill seen from Posillipo hill. Built in 1964, it allowed an exponential
increase of the steel output. It stands today as a symbol of a once prosperous past.
Naples, 2016 - From right to left: the tip of the blast furnace no. 4, the coke candle, and its linked cooling tower emerging from the
walls that surround the Bagnoli steel mill, seen from via Coroglio.
Naples, 2016 - From left to right: the AGL candle, the cokery cooling tower and the blast furnace no. 4 seen from the Northern pier,
which was used to transport materials and products from ships and renovated for public use in 2005.
Naples, 2016 - A pebble trail running in the middle of the seafill built in 1962 in order to expand the steel mill working area, together
with the Northern pier.
 Naples, 2016 - The materials used in the construction of the seafill pose today significant concerns and effectively hinder any
progression towards the renovation of the Bagnoli steel mill area, which include plans to convert the area into a seaside resort.
The entire line of coast is still forbidden for bathing.
 Naples, 2016 - The remnants of the two other sea piers used to move materials and finished products between sea ships and the
industrial district. They are still in an abandoned state, used occasionally as a fishing point despite them being closed to the public.
Naples, 2016 - A portion of a former passageway leading to the Cementir cement and concrete factory, which derived its materials
from products of the blast furnace of the steel mill.
Naples, 2016 - A man relaxing on the beach as the ruins of the Cementir factory sit in the background. A popular movement towards
the liberation of the seaside has been very active since the demise of the steel factory.
Naples, 2016 - A man strolls on the beach of the Circolo ILVA, with the Montecatini pier sitting in the background. The Circolo ILVA
is an association which inherited the activities of the older workers’ recreational club. A successful sporting club, it is today the main
custodian of the history and values of the former steel workers.
Naples, 2016 - Sulphurous residues forming from a water stream that flows on the beach outside the Circolo ILVA. The Bagnoli area
was known since ancient times for its thermal springs. Its related touristic activities persisted until the 60s, when the pollution linked
to the industrial activities became too severe.
Naples, 2016 - A ban on waste disposing sign on the portion of the wall where the industrial complex merges with the Cavalleggeri
d’Aosta neighbourhood, an often neglected area for the understanding of the social impact of the steel mill. The Eternit factory was
built in this area, closed in 1985 amidst asbestos-related health concerns.
Naples, 2016 - A bridge sitting in the middle of the Parco dello sport, a planned and partially constructed sporting complex which
sought to revitalize the western portion of the former industrial district, just under the Posillipo hill. After a series of interrupted
fundings the complex was abandoned, to the greed of thieves and the weather.
 Naples, 2016 - The entrance of the Science Centre, an interactive scientific museum part of the omonimous Città della
Scienza, the very first (and successful) intervention towards to the reconversion of the area, started just before the complete shutdown
of the factory. Destroyed by arson on March 2013, the Science Centre is currently under reconstruction.
Naples, 2016 - A graffiti that says “here we cry every day” on the wall of a building in the seafill zone, in the
proximity of the rails that start from the Southern pier.
For most of its history, the Bagnoli steel complex provided its workers the
security of a steady income in the present and pension benefits for the future,
even moreso when it became a state industry, part of the strategy devised after the
war that sought to increase the national steel productivity by direct control of the
government (by the in-famous “Ministry for State Holdings”). Together with
Bagnoli there where Genoa, Piombino, and Taranto in the early sixties, when the
original ILVA (company founded in 1905 and named after the Latin name for
Elba island) fused into Italsider in 1961.

For these reasons, working at the factory became for most young men the greatest
ambition, a guaranteed way to enter the ever-growing ranks of the middle class
and upwards social mobility, especially for those who endured the hardships and
deprivation during the war and Nazi occupation. During the years, among
families from Bagnoli and surrounding neighbourhoods and towns (Fuorigrotta,
Cavalleggeri Aosta, Agnano, and Pozzuoli) a family member working in the
factories (or ‘O Cantiere - construction site - in Neapolitan) became a common
denominator. A common reminiscence among older Bagnolese is of the sirens
that announced the various working turns (“we lived with the sirens...”).

However, for a long time the workers and their families were seemingly
unconcerned of the health hazards linked with living in such close quarters with
a source of pollution - although veterans often instructed the newbies on how to
protect themselves from pollution and blankets hanging from windows had to be
re-washed when the wind brought the smoke from the factories.

When environmental issues began to enter public debate, the oxymoron between
economic welfare and public health safety became even more apparent.
Naples, 2016 - From left to right: Viviana Mangione, proprietress of “Che Tacco” shoe store, sitting with Alessandra Barone, owner of
a clothing store on the other side of the street in Rione Giusso, and Roberta Fusco, daughter of veteran Bagnoli steelworker Liborio.
Each one of them have relatives involved with the factory.
As the closure of the factory becomes an event further back in history, fewer and
fewer of the inhabitants have direct memories of the years in which the steel mill
was in full operation, especially those who were born during its very last years.

The vast majority of them have a relative who worked there, thus enjoying the
relative prosperity brought by those jobs or indirectly reliving those years with
the testimony of their fathers or grandfathers, who often draw parallels between
‘those days’ and today situation, in which the demise of the factory effectively
created an occupational vacuum where the younger generations carry the
heaviest burden. Once, the families of the neighbourhood often pushed their sons
and daughters towards higher education in hopes of getting employed in the
industrial complex. Today, as the fate of the area is still unknown, the rate of un-
employment rises and more and more young people seek their fortune elsewhere,
leaving behind a situation in which the pensions of the former workers are the
main source of sustenance for entire families.

Among most of them, irregardless of their memories of the past, the main
concern is about the future. Unable for reasons out of their control to preserve
a continuity that dates back since the beginning of the twentieth century, which
saw three generations employed at the same place, often look with distrust at the
local and national politics, guilty of letting the situation stall - nearly every inter-
vention towards the reconversion of the area, save for the reconstruction of the
Northern pier and Città della Scienza (a private investment), has been utterly
unsuccessful.
 Naples, 2016 - Mr. Liborio Fusco portrayed in his studio with his grandson Francesco. A third-generation steelworker since 1970,
part of the squad tasked to oversee the dismantling of the steel mill in the late ‘90s, several times municipality councilman and today a
promiment member of the Circolo ILVA.
Naples, 2016 - Mr. Fusco showing pictures from his later working experiences, political initiatives, and everyday moments with
friends and families. The picture shown in his hands depicts him with other workers tasked with the dismantling of the factory.
During those years, its most valuable assets were sold to foreign investors.
Naples, 2016 - Mr. Fusco’s working helmet in his office.
Naples, 2016 - Mr. Vittorio Attanasio posing in front of the Circolo ILVA tennis court. Hired at the factory in 1970 and employed in
the cokery oven, today he is the President of the club.
Naples, 2016 - Mr. Salvatore Sannino showing a picture taken during a work experience in an Indian steel mill. Employed in the
factory at the age of 18 in 1962, he was in the squad that managed the strip mill facilities, highly advanced during the ‘80s.
Naples, 2016 - Mr. Giovanni as he poses resting his arm on his car in Viale Campi Flegrei, where pensioners use to gather to discuss
politics and general news. Among the most veteran workers in the group of pensioners, he witnessed the hardships associated with
the war and the occupation since a young age.
More than one hundred years ago the construction of the Bagnoli industrial
complex was decided in order to provide a solution to the seemingly endless
poverty that plagued Naples and its surrounding at least since the unification
under the Italian kingdom. For most of its history, the steel mill managed to
accomplish its mission - together with similar experiences on the other side of
the Vesuvius, like the shipbuilding industries in Castellammare di Stabia and
Torre del Greco, pasta manifacturing in Torre Annunziata and the Sarno valley
- by providing stability in a difficult region like Southern Italy, even though they
proved to be a quite fragile context.

On certain aspects, the Bagnoli experience was an exception. Its social

model proved to resist better as the heavy industry in general began to fall during
the beginning of the ‘80s, as the development of a working class ethic managed
to create a ‘social bloc’ which contributed to lessen the degenerative process
associated with the crisis. In fact, as it was already renowned as a place with a
lower crime rate than the rest of the city, it never saw the violent resurgence of
organized crime that plagued the rest of the region.

Like for many problems in Southern Italy, solutions are often found by taking
advantage of its hidden potentials, often neglected for lack of initiative or political
competence.

In the case of Bagnoli however, an enormous ground zero left abandoned for
close than twenty years, the negligence reaches macroscopic proportions.