THE FOUNDRY MOVES
(Second half of 2000)
In the second half of 2000 began the construction of the first building for the new headquarters of the Marinelli Foundry in Barberino Val d‘Elsa, Florence. The transfer will take place in the autumn of 2001..
The industrial area of Rifredi, on the outskirts of the city, where Ferdinando Marinelli Sr. had created the Foundry, was gradually transformed into a residential area with houses and shops. The fumes from the baking of the forms, although not polluting, have begun to annoy the neighborhood, as has the continuous beating of the engravers on the bronze. But the main reason why Ferdinando Marinelli Jr. decided to relocate the business was the need for more space. He noticed this in a particular way when, in order to get the horses of the Broncos monument in Denver (Colorado) out of the assembly room, the lintel of the door had to be broken.
A plot of land was chosen in the area of Barberino Val d ‘Elsa, from which you can see the towers of San Gimignano, and in 2000 construction work began on the first of the three warehouses.
Hunger comes with eating, and space is never enough: a few years later the other two adjoining warehouses were built to house the precious plaster cast collection and to assemble the great monuments.