The Hamon Towers
S.A.R.O.M refinery
Immortalized by the last scene from Michelangelo Antonioni’s Deserto Rosso (1964), the Hamon cooling towers have gained a strong symbolic relevance over the years, thus becoming a symbol of Ravenna’s industrial past.
The profile of the cooling towers is distinctive of the landscape of every 19th century industrial settlement, especially when standing beside power plants or thermal power station, refineries, or facilities for chemical transformations.
The solution of a tower “flared” in the lower half, adopted for the first time by the german Kuypers enterprise, is recovered at the beginning of the 20th century by the Hamon brothers, from which this type of structure derives its name.
The first cooling towers, built with wooden on steel structures and covered with wooden panels, were originally used for the mining of coal in minerary industry. Only on a second time the towers were built in reinforced concrete, more resistant to the high temperature now reached by the improved manufacturing processes.
The solution of a tower “flared” in the lower half, adopted for the first time by the german Kuypers enterprise, is recovered at the beginning of the 20th century by the Hamon brothers, from which this type of structure derives its name.
The Hamon cooling towers in Ravenna are 55 meters high and cover an area of 2.500m², and were built by Attilio Monti, who, after founding the S.A.R.O.M. (“Società Anonima Raffinazione Olii Minerali”, i.e., Anonymous Society for the Refining of Mineral Oils) thus creates in 1950 a great facility for oil refining.
Monti’s success, also supported by his rise as a national editor, abruptly ends in 1973. At the eight of his success as a businessman, at the head of more than 3000 employees, Monti is involved in the world oil crisis.
Between 1974 and 1977 S.A.R.O.M.’s financial losses amounted to 234 billion lire. The debts rose from 700 to 1.140 billion. In 1979, after selling the Eridania society to Serafino Ferruzzi, Monti opened negotiations with ENI for the transfer of all the other productive activities. In 1981 the facility at Ravenna was permanently closed.
A heated debate was ignited in the last years regarding the fate of the Hamon towers, with part of the public opinion that would restore and redevelop the structures.
