cartiera, Cartiera Nardi

In the frazione of Pracando, the Cartiera Nardi stands as a monumental relic of 19th-century industrial ambition. Built in 1863, this once-thriving paper mill is now a vast, abandoned structure of five masonry blocks stretching across three floors. The ground level housed machinery and storage; the first floor was given over to workers’ housing; the second, with its distinctive row of tall windows, was the drying loft or “spanditoio”. When the mill ceased operations in the early 1970s, everything inside was left intact. The original machinery remains, untouched by technological updates, and the rooms themselves are preserved as a clear record of the paper-making process as it was then practised.

The mill’s operation depended on a complex water system fed by the two main torrents, the Pescia di Collodi and the Pescia di Colognola, along with three other channelled streams. Local stone and brick make up the fabric, with roughly hewn stone quoins alternating with brick courses. Windows vary in height and treatment, some with flat stone lintels, others with brick arches, while the roof retains its original timber trusses.

Description via source. Coordinates and heritage data from the Atika atlas.