From Rail Power to the Avant-Garde: Nicola Romeo, Caproni, and CEMSA in Saronno, 1925

The mid-1920s witnessed Italy’s ambitious drive to electrify its Alpine and peninsular rail networks using the three-phase AC system. CEMSA’s cavernous brick workshops in Saronno were equipped with heavy overhead gantry cranes, massive boring mills, and transformer coil-winding rooms. There, CEMSA fabricated the legendary E.333 and E.472 electric locomotives for the Ferrovie dello Stato, capable of pulling passenger expresses through steep Apennine gradients with iron reliability.

In 1935, aeronautical magnate Count Gianni Caproni acquired CEMSA, injecting cutting-edge aircraft alloys, wind-tunnel research, and precision tooling into Saronno’s industrial bloodstream.

Following the Second World War, Caproni entrusted brilliant former Fiat technical director Antonio Fessia (1901–1968) to develop a car of the future. The result, unveiled at the 1947 Paris Salon, was the *Caproni-Cemsa F11*: featuring front-wheel drive, a flat-four boxer engine mounted ahead of the front axle, and four-wheel independent suspension. Though postwar financial collapse prevented mass assembly, Fessia later resurrected this exact mechanical blueprint at Lancia to create the legendary Flavia in 1960.

Today, the former CEMSA industrial perimeter in Saronno stands as an evocative symbol of Lombard heavy industry. Prototypes and railway components are preserved in national transport museums, honoring a factory where trains and cars touched the future.