1899 | Chiozza e Turchi

Pontelagoscuro was a center of candlemaking and a major imported of wax from Turkey. Transition to soap making can be easily explained.

Ancient Roman legend has it that the word ‘soap’ is derived from Mount Sapo, where animals were sacrificed, and from where rainwater washed a mixture of melted animal fats (tallow, a foul-smelling substance also used to make candles) and wood ashes into the River Tiber below. 

There, the soapy mixture was found to be useful for washing clothing and skin.

Why the name Turchi is part of the soap company name. One could only guess and look for answers. Maybe there is an image of oriental baths and the image of sensuality of a harem. MAM

Mavi Boncuk | Chiozza e Turchi[1], Soap Manufacturers (1899) by Adolfo Hohenstein[2]

"Chiozza e Turchi, fabricants de savons, Pontelagoscuro, Italie[3]" by Adolfo Hohenstein[2]. Color lithograph advertising poster in French for Chiozza e Turchi soap manufacturers. Showing two women blowing soap bubbles. Lithograph by E. Chappuis, Bologna, 1899.


[1] The soapmaker Chiozza & Turchi was the first (1812) modern factory built on the territory of Ferrara, when the Po still marked the border between the Papal State and the Austrian Veneto. 

Pontelagoscuro then was a strategic location for the river trade, as the volume of goods transiting its customs. The physiognomy of the historic center of Pontelagoscuro was dominated by the presence of the Covered Street, an arcade along 110 meters with warehouse functions, built in 1648 to allow the storage of goods at the time sailed up the Po from all over the known world, and here they were unloaded to be marketed in the lower valley.

Many products supplied precisely the "Saunara" - so called pontesani the factory - that already in 1871 produced seven thousand tons of ordinary soap and over seventy thousand dozen scented soaps exported worldwide. Soap industry at the time made the fortune literally Pontelagoscuro and its inhabitants. The soap maker for many decades was the official supplier of the royal family of England.

Manifesti Liberty, E. Bigliardi

The Chiozza & Turchi  was born in 1812 on initiative of the Trieste Carlo Luigi Chiozza, who bought an area of ​​11,000 square meters on the flood plain of the Po to plant a branch of its factory. A good choice, as confirmed by the excellent results obtained in the following decades under the guidance Viennese entrepreneur Francesco Tranz. Results that did not go unnoticed: in 1857, on the sidelines of a long journey in the provinces of his state, Pope Pius IX decided to visit the busy town of Pontelagoscuro responding to the invitation of Tranz.


The following year, the real turning point for the "Saunara", thanks to the technical innovations introduced by chemist Peter Spannocchi that allowed to start production of scented soaps superior quality standards of the time. Thus began an export worldwide: between 1861 and 1911 Chiozza & Turchi competes on par with major British and French companies, as evidenced by the many awards obtained at prestigious national and international exhibitions. The "Saunara", in those happy years, is even among the suppliers of the British Royal Family. Not even the terrible fire of 1882, which effectively destroyed the old plant, stopped the will of the owners and workers in a few months, as reported by the Journal Ferrarese, the factory was rebuilt bigger and more modern. It not by chance was adopted as the corporate brand the Phoenix, that stands in the beautiful posters curated by artists such as Dudovich, Hohenstein and De Carolis. SOURCE

 The crisis that followed the First World War made its effects felt even on Chiozza & Turchi, the insurmountable difficulties in the supply of raw materials and the gradual closure of many foreign markets provoked an inexorable decline that resulted in the closure of the plant in 1928 and Pontelagoscuro transferred production to Milan. Nothing remains of the plant, except the walls of the elevator in the river.



[2] Adolfo Hohenstein (Saint Petersburg, 18 March 1854 – Bonn, 12 April 1928) was a German painter, advertiser, illustrator, set designer and costume designer. He's considered the father of the Italian poster art and an exponent of the Stile Liberty, the Italian Art Nouveau. Together with Leonetto Cappiello, Giovanni Mario Mataloni, Leopoldo Metlicovitz and Marcello Dudovich, he's considered one of the most important Italian poster designers.

Leopoldo Metlicovitz poster

[3] Soap making has a long history in Italy. The Romans used olive oil to wash themselves, but they made soap for washing clothes, as archaeological finds seem to demonstrate (a soap factory was found at Pompeii). In the Middle Ages, the centre of soap making was Marseilles, but Italian soap made with olive oil had a high reputation even then. In the eighteenth century, using soap for bathing became popular, and many soap factories were established in Europe. 

The origin of the name "soap" came much after the origin of the product itself. Roman mythologic tradition relates the origin of the name with Mount Sapo, situated close to the river Tíber in Rome. The story tells that it was in the on the side of this mountain that the chemical reaction of saponification was first produced, i.e. the rain water mixed with the ash and animal fat from ritual animal sacrifices, giving birth the origin of soap. Another custom exists that affirms that the origin of the name prodeeds from the town of Savona, situated close to Génova in Italy, where the first solid soap was made. Which highlights the etymological similarity between the name of the town and the French denomination of soap as "savon" and the italian "sapone".

See also Word Origin | Soap