Pieve Vergonte

Pieve Vergonte in 1982

In the year 1928 the Municipality of Fomarco and the Municipality of Rumianca were definitively abolished and they were reunited in a single Municipality with the name "Pieve Vergonte", having a population of 1.916 Inhabitants. The suppressed Municipalities are abandoned.

During the Second World War the mountain territories around Pieve Vergonte, like those of the whole Val d'Ossola, witnessed an important activity partisan, in particular the formation of the commander Filippo Beltrami, one of the first in the area between Cusio and Ossola, which at the end of January 1943 had placed its temporary base in Pievese territory, in Cortavolo, just above the hamlet of Megolo Mezzo. On February 13 1944 this area was the scene of the battle of Megolo, between the partisan group of Beltrami and the Nazi-fascist troops of the German army and of the Italian Social Republic coming from Domodossola and Novara, under the command of Captain Ernst Simon.

During the day, between the clash and the shooting, the commander Filippo Beltrami, the political commissar Gianni Citterio, the deputy commander Antonio Di Dio and nine other partisans fell: Carlo Antibo, Giovanni Bressani Bassano, Aldo Carletti, Angelo Clavena, Bartolomeo Creola, Emilio (or Cornelio) Gorla, Paolo Marino, Gaspare Pajetta and Elio Toninelli.[5] The rest of the group managed to retreat to the mountains.

After the end of the war on April 25, 1945, on May 9, 1945 the shooting of 11 was registered in Pieve Vergonte, Val d'Ossola militias of the Italian Social Republic by partisan forces Canapa Angelo Francesco (Carrara 18.10.1925), Conti Angelo (Rome 11.1.1893), Di Giovanni Carlo (Rome 25.9. 1894), France Michele (Velletri 3.9.1900), Micale Salvatore (Taviano 2.12.1919), Search Dino, De Deo Giuseppe (Civitavecchia 16.12.1910), Perlini Vittorio (Frosinone 1.1.1902), Princigalli Giovanni, Tesoro Alfredo (Terlizzi 14.10.1927) and his brother Tesoro Giuseppe (Terlizzi 24.8.1925). A civilian is also shot, Serafini Amelia (Macerata 29.6.1901).[6]

These soldiers belonged to the Black Brigade Ministerial,[7] a unit taken to the Val d'Ossola after the re-occupation of the Partisan Republic territory in October 1944. The Black Ministerial Brigade was born following the imminent fall of Rome in 1944, by Benito Mussolini and Alessandro Pavolini,[8] Secretary of the Republican Fascist Party, who militarized the Republican Fascist Party, transforming the provincial formations into the Black Brigades.[9] On 27 August 1944, the Chief of Staff of the Black Brigades, Giovanni Battista Riggio, circulated a circular addressed to state and ministerial employees in which he hoped for their voluntary registration in the brigades.[10] Pavolini, in turn, announces on September 17, 1944, the establishment of special ministerial departments, thus creating the Black Autonomous Ministerial Brigade, based in Brescia (704 Post Office) and which obtains the greatest success among the officials of the Ministries of Finance and of the Popular Culture[10]

After the end of the war on April 25, 1945, the partisans shot three civilians in Pieve Vergonte: Mr. Casella and Signora Calvi, inhabitants of Pieve Vergonte, and Mr. Bettineschi living in Fomarco. Mr Casella and Mrs. Calvi were temporarily buried at Alpe Piana, in Val Toppa, above the village of Pieve Vergonte. Mr. Bettineschi was temporarily buried in a mine gallery at Alpe Fontano, in Val Toppa, above the village of Pieve Vergonte.[11]

At the beginning of April 1945 a German chemist (anti-Nazi. was appropriated by the Garibaldini of Megolo. He apologized for the continuous delay in the production of a powerful aggressive chemical) who was in charge of monitoring the progress of some chemical plants including Rumianca. On 10 April 1945 a commando was sent to Megolo with the task of escorting him to the Command for an exchange. He tried to escape and a partisan killed him. He was buried in great secrecy in a field, then, following the grievances of the owner, he was transferred, still in great secrecy, to the Cemetery. The partisan commander, Baron Alessandro Cavalchini (Sandro), of monarchical convictions, warned of the family at the end of the war. In 1978 in Anzola the restoration of the Chapel of the Holy Cross was inaugurated, a donated restoration, together with a Crucifix and a tombstone with the donor's words, by Alessandro Cavalchini.[12]

The industrial chemical plant of Pieve Vergonte was founded in 1915 on the initiative of the Italian Society of Explosive Products (PETS) based in Milan, with capital of 2,500,000 lire. The first production for military purposes was the production of iodine monochloride of chlorobenzene and phosgene used during the First World War and later in the African campaign.

During World War II, Clorosoda, sulfuric acid, and fertilizers were produced. After the war, shutting down the production of sulphuric acid, Rumianca SpA, and then the SIR Group, developed new product lines for the production of DDT and chloroaromatics. These products were used by the United States of America during the Vietnam War.

In 1981, the facilities of this company were transferred to the ENI Group and the ANIC Company. The ANIC, then EniChem, DDT plants ran until June 1996, and remaining in production until their sale on 1 July 1997 to Tessenderlo, Italy. The clorosoda, chlorine and aromatic synthetic HCL are in production for the Tessenderlo Group.

In May 2013, Tessenderlo Group sold Tessenderlo Partecipazioni SpA, and its subsidiary Tessenderlo Italy Srl, to International Chemical Investors Group (ICIG).[15] The transaction includes the plant in Pieve Vergonte (VB), where there now are an active electrolysis plant, one for chloro-aromatics, and two hydroelectric plants that provide energy. Tessenderlo Italy employs a total of 113 people. Achim Riemann, Managing Director of ICIG, said: "The integration upstream of Tessenderlo Italy, with direct supply of energy through its hydroelectric plants, is vital for the competitiveness of the plant of Pieve Vergonte and so we want to maintain this integration and have both hydroelectric concessions renewed for the long term." The company trades under the name of hydrochemitalia.[16]

The village of Pieve Vergonte produces electricity from hydroelectric power. The largest producer is the Edison Company with plants in Val Anzasca and Pieve Vergonte, both fed by the waters of the river Anza with a total average production of 95 GWh. The second-largest producer is Tessenderlo's Battiggio plant, ex-Rumianca of Ceppo Morelli in Val Anzasca, on the Toce river at Megolo, which has a total average production of 90 GWh.

Along the creek Marmazza, above the village of Pieve Vergonte, in the Toppa Valley, mining is of great value. There are many pyrite minerals scattered throughout the Ossola valley, which can not be easily mined, and which are entirely neglected. Gold-bearing pyrites were first detected in the quarries of the Maffiola brothers in the valley.

The extraction of gold from the mines of the Toppa Valley was done with mercury, a process first developed by the Spaniard Pedro Fernandez de Velasco in the Americas and thence introduced to Europe by Baron De Born, where an amalgamation was obtained with of fire, and which was used in all the gold mines in Ossola.[17]

The gold production of the Val Toppa mining company, which was listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1863, valued in British pounds/shillings/pence:[18]

• 1864 – Production 509 oz (14.43 kg) & .275 – £1798/18/9 (566,560 Euros in Jan 2017)
• 1865 – Production 574 oz (16.28 kg) & .575 – £2032/14/5 (638,911 Euros in Jan 2017)
• 1866 – Production 1400 oz (39.69 kg) & .925 – £4957/15/8 (1,558,320 Euros in Jan 2017)

with an average production of 1 ounce "oz" and 5 pennyweight "dwt" of gold per tonne of ore mined.