The Social City (or City of Harmony) is the witness of the activities of the Marzotto family. For the community of Valdagno, the Marzottos were the determining element of its rebirth and its modern fortunes, of the passage of the town from a condition of backwardness, illiteracy and precariousness!
The town had developed all along the right bank of the Agno river, mainly as a pole of the nascent wool industry, thanks to the Marzotto family. The reason for the great development of my small town is closely linked to the Marzotto family: the entrepreneur Gaetano Marzotto jr. observed that the conflict in the factory could be eradicated only with interventions that would enhance the interdependence between business and society, and that society itself presented contradictions to be resolved such as the absence of essential social services in the presence of low wages, the unhealthiness of housing and the disorderly development of the territory. This prompted him to give life to the “social city”, an experience considered “perhaps the most important complex of Italian welfare works”. The Marzotto family decided to have a part of the city designed that would contain services and some places of entertainment for the citizens. The architect Francesco Bonfanti was called in and created a masterpiece of rationalist architecture that still serves the same purpose today as it did at the time of its inauguration. The “social city”, a vast subdivision of company land on the left bank of the river, was initiated at the end of the 1920s, not only intended for housing and services for workers, but also opened up some of the “social institutions” designed for employees such as the Polyclinic, the Maternity Ward, the Nursery School, the Dopolavoro and the Theatre to the entire population.
Another peculiar element of Valdagno’s experience derived from the attention of the entrepreneur towards human values, the moral and cultural growth of the worker, witnessed by the promotion of many initiatives of a cultural, sports and recreational nature and by the construction of the relative support structures.
From an architectural and urbanistic point of view, the “social city” of Valdagno has received many authoritative recognitions, known for the high level of urban services offered, the high urbanistic quality and the architectural unity.