Via Fracaiolo

Via Fracaiolo is a sort of open air museum, carved out under therock (“crap” in the local dialect) of the Masegra, and visitors can still perceive the neighborhood’s original artisanal nature.

Since medieval times, this has been the site of many craftsman’s workshops and artisanal businesses that used to utilize the waters of the Mallero, channeled into the canals known as Malleretti, to power their equipment. The Malleretto canal, with its locks, is still visible, as are the roofed-over public laundries and the curious nymphaeum designed by Ligari, decorated in rockery style, with stones and seashells. From the washerwomen’s stations one can see the gardens of the Workers’ Society, founded in 1864 at the behest of Giuseppe Fumagalli.

As in other quarters of Sondrio, the chapel devoted to the worship of the Virgin still stands, this one dedicated to the Holy Name of Maria.