Type:

Luoghi della cultura; Ente/Istituzione

Category:

Art museums

A museum of industry located within an industrial structure: the Saronno Museum of Industry and Labour (MILS), in fact, is housed within the Northern Milan Railway buildings, where the steam locomotives were overhauled at the beginning of the 19th century. The idea of creating a Museum of Industry and Labour dates back to 1996, following a temporary exhibition on the theme of industry organized by the ACLI (The Christian Association of Italian Labourers). After just two years, a permanent exhibition managed by an association of volunteers was established with the aim of preserving and promoting the Saronno area's rich industrial heritage, thus also resulting in an opportunity to promote education as well. Some of the flagships of the MILS museum include a Phonola television, another of which is exhibited at the Guggenheim in New York, and an armoured encasement by the company Parma Antonio, which protected the pallio d'oro of Milan's altar of Sant'Ambrogio for ninety-seven years, starting in 1881. Other exhibits include the northern railway's first electric locomotive of 1928, a number of Isotta Fraschini engines, a large fabric printing machine by De Angeli Frua-Cantoni and some of the oldest cookie and macaroon making machines by D. Lazzaroni & C., with the various tin cans and cartons used for packaging depicted in images that have shaped the history of industrial design.