Type:

Luoghi della cultura; Oggetto fisico

Category:

Museums; Archaeological monuments

Ponte Nossa is a small village located at the Orobie Pre-Alps, at around thirty km from Bergamo, Italy. Its name could be translated as "Bridge on the Nossa river ", though this is just one of many hypotheseson the name's origins. The Nossa is e very short (half a kilometer) river nevertheless endowed with a high, constant flow. Its springs currently feed the water supply system of the chief town Bergamo and around thirty villages in the same province. In the XVth century these springs provided the necessary water for the functioning of four huge hydraulic hammers (magli) for iron working and, later, also for some fulling mills. Iron was brought to the hammers from mines in the nearby mountains. I was smelled and forget to make nails, spades, hoes or other objects used by local farmers. The cultural association Associazione Magli Nossa, supported by the Municipality of Ponte Nossa, was re-founded with the aim of restoring the area where these preindustrial structures were built bringing back to life its ancient traditions. What else to see in Ponte Nossa: the parish church an sanctuary which contains a sacred image of Our Lady who cried blood on 2 June 1511, the small church of San Bernardino, on the river Serio, and the former cotton mill De Angeli Frua, now an excellent example of industrial archaeological site.