ASKMECOLLE
Welcome to Colle di Val D’elsa Colle di Val d’Elsa is a hilltop town in the province of Siena with a population of 21,264 inhabitants. The town is also the birth place of Arnolfo di Cambio, Italian architect and sculptor born in 1240, to whom the main square is dedicated. Today Colle is famous worldwide for the production of Crystal glassware. Colle’s economy is diversified with a strong tertiary sector. Tourism is thriving thanks to its historical centre and strategic position in the centre of Tuscany, and its vicinity to some important destinations like Siena, Florence, San Gimignano and Volterra. In the past the main activity was agriculture, today it is also enriched by the growing country house tourism. Thanks to its position along Via Francigena, since the 12th to the 13th century Colle developed economically and a lot of paper factories and other manufacturing activities bloomed. They were operated by the so-called “gore”, that is artificial canals powered by the water of the river Elsa. These canals, which still exist today, facilitated the development of every industrial activity until some decades ago. During the Medicean period, the production of wool became less important, and agriculture developed thank to the reclamation of the lands and the use of those that once were reserved to pasture. The paper industry was very important, both economically and culturally. In Colle every kind of book was printed since 1400: for more than two centuries some paper factories had the regional monopoly of the production of the stamped paper for payment of a tax. As time progressed the number of paper factories gradually reduced, especially by the elimination of privileges. At the beginning of the second half of 1900, the production of paper was supplanted by iron and glass industries. In 1820 François Mathis founded the first glassmaker of the Modern age, while in 1855 Stefano Masson, a savoyard settled in Colle, founded Masson Ironworks. The town became one of the most important industrial centres of Tuscany. For the importance of this sector, the Crystal Museum has been founded, the only one in Italy.
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