ARMY ARSENAL OF PIACENZA
The establishment was founded on 1st July 1911 with the name of "Artillery Construction Laboratory", consolidating the Artillery Management (1863) and three laboratories: Main Laboratory, Artifices Laboratory in the area of Farnesiano Castle and the Loading Bullets Laboratory. The latter had two serious accidents at work: the first in September 1928, in which eleven people died, and the second in August 1940 that provoked forty-four victims.
After its constitution in Arsenal as independent Establishment, the workings have been extended with the installation of spare parts for artilleries. In 1926, after the reorganization of the Army, it was named "Royal Army Arsenal of Piacenza". In conjunction with the African feat and the Spanish civil war from 1936 to 1939 the "Bocche da Fuoco" and "Affusti" Units were formed; new operating machines were installed such as lathes, milling machines and wire drawing machines, but also auxiliary facilities (furnaces for heat treatments, for bullets and for the hot or cold hoops of the guns. It was also given new equipment for the technological laboratory such as a metallurgical microscope. The personnel was trained, strengthening the apprentices' school.
The years between 1940 and 1945 were the most dramatic years of its history and in that context the Royal Army Arsenal was important for the economy of the city; in 1941 the personnel was composed of 2359 units.
At the end of the war, after the liberation of Piacenza on 28th April 1945, the Establishment reopened on 1st May. In May 1945 the personnel of the Arsenal had to face the feat of restart working in spite of the situation. The difficulties were overcome facing the need of reconstruction of the buildings destroyed by bombings and the reconditioning of auxiliary facilities (water supply and electricity grid networks, compressed area, vapor, etc…), thanks to the personnel's professionalism.