Ferrania

Ferrania is a mediaeval town of about a thousand inhabitants, now a hamlet of the Municipality of Cairo Montenotte. During the 20th century, production activities were started and developed in this hamlet in multiple sectors, made possible thanks to the large spaces and direct connections with the port of Savona and northern Italy. The field of industry that first began was the steel industry, when the S.I.P.E. (Società Italiana Prodotti Explosdenti [Italian Company for Explosive Products]) plant was built, where explosive substances were produced. With the end of the First World War, it was decided to reconvert industrial production, choosing to continue in the field of sensitive products, i.e. films. S.I.P.E. converted the existing plants and created a new company, F.I.L.M. (Fabbrica Italiana Lamine Milano [Italian Foil Factory Milan]), with registered office in Milan but operating in Ferrania. With the Liberation, there was a gradual recovery of the national economy and the production and research activity also continued in Ferrania. Thanks to the economic revival of that first glimpse of the post-war period, the foundations were laid for what would become the flagship product in the following years: the production of films, where numerous films from the golden season of Italian cinema were also shot.