Biella

Biella lies in the Alpine foothills between Turin and Milan, among streams descending from the mountains. Its upper quarter, the Piazzo, grew after the bishop of Vercelli granted privileges to settlers there in 1160. The new borough offered refuge from fighting between the factions of Vercelli. The town's textile traditions are old: its statutes already mentioned wool workers and weavers in 1245.

In 1377 a revolt destroyed the bishop's castle, and Biella placed itself under the House of Savoy. Wool working remained important, while silk also flourished in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; a silk factory was established in 1695. In 1835 the same building became a wool mill equipped with mechanical looms, marking a new stage in the town's long history of textile production and trade.