Pollone

Pulun

Pollone is located in a beautiful geographical position opening toward the Biellese plain and bordered by the Serra murenic hills on one side and the green Burcina in the other. It is not a compact nucleus, but it is sub-divided into various cantun: there are eight of them, starting from the highest, Chiavolino, to the one called Cangio, the lowest and most ancient.

 The administrative centre is la Vila.Starting from the second half of the ‘800s, Pollone, easy reachable by train or coach, became a renowned village for vacation with important hotels, inns, tennis lawns and many private and elegant houses. Still today, Pollone is a residential centre, both because of the local working skills and to the arrival of new owners for the old nineteenth century residences.

  
The land was colonised by various populations, Nordic, Ligurian, Gallic, who for centuries reclaimed the pastures, improved the water systems, exploited all possible from nature, like stones and woods of various types. These activities were conditioned by seasonal events and to overcome poverty, valid men looked for occupation in nearby lands, leaving to the women the responsibility to manage the household. The migratory movement was born from these seasonal transfers.

From the first decades of 1700 even in Pollone there was a start to the industrial production by the Piacenza family, but in spite of this new opportunity of work, the emigration continued to increase. From a notice of 1751 we know that of 97 emigrants from Valle Elvo abroad, 50 were from Pollone. Such situation remained until the French revolution in 1789 when there was a noticeable decrease due to the various wars at that time.

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The beginning of ‘800 registered a new increase in emigration interesting mostly France and Switzerland, while toward the end of the ‘800 and up to the First World War, far away countries, like Argentina, Brazil, the United States and Peru, were chosen. Patterson and its textile industries attracted a large number of our fellow-citizens. The First World War slowed down emigration and this continued both because of the economic crisis of the Twenthies and for the political opposition of the Fascist period. After the Second World War there were less and less Pollonesi emigrating.

The biographical cards of Pollone are 114, 5.3% of the inhabitants in 1911. 55.8% emigrated to the United States (30.2% comes from the Archives of Ellis Island and 25.6% from the emigration to Patterson), 13.2% to Switzerland, 11.6% to France and South America, 3.1% to Africa and 4.7% to other European countries. The most frequent family names are Ramella, Coda and Mosca. The oldest emigrant, 1851, is Francesca Coda emigrated to the United States.