Pietro Baragiola - Italian entrepreneur and politician

Going up the stairs of the town hall, on the first landing where the staircase splits into two flights, stands the bust dedicated to Pietro Baragiola, who, a graduate in Agricultural Sciences, was a silk industrialist, invested in navigation on Lake Como, in the modernization of industrial and agricultural machinery and in the introduction of electricity and was elected deputy to the Parliament of the Kingdom of Italy for six legislatures, from 1895 until 1914, the year of his death.

In the college of Erba. Although not a "Bagnaiolo", the character fully deserved this recognition. The text on the plaque under the bust explains the reason

PIETRO BARAGIOLA
OF OUR CENTURIES-OLD BENEMERITO THERMAL BATHS
FOR FOREWORD OF INITIATIVES CARRIED OUT FROM MCM TO MCMXIII

When Grand Duke Peter Leopold (Vienna 1747 - 1792) wanted the rebirth of the entire spa area, the village on the plain consisted of a few dozen houses located mostly along the Via Regia, and others scattered here and there in the territory.

A hundred years later, Bagni di Montecatini was a hive of construction sites and initiatives. Hotels, restaurants, shops were popping up everywhere while the city was wearing the face of water villas.

The person who gave substance to the tourist and spa Montecatini was not a “Bagnaiolo” but a great industrialist from Brianza, Pietro Baragiola.

Born into a wealthy family, Baragiola arrived in Montecatini in 1883 because he had sensed the potential for development that the area could have.

The purchase of the concession of the Terme Demaniali from the Beccaro Company, for 800,000 lire, was only the first step in a short and profitable journey that by the end of the century saw him as the owner of numerous Springs and private lands for a total of 380,000 square meters and at the head of the Società delle Nuove Terme founded by him.

The reason why Montecatini must be grateful to this enlightened businessman is that he made it rise to the level of the great spa cities of Europe.

He improved and strengthened the old and dilapidated establishments that he had received in concession by relying on the architect Giulio Bernardini who was called to manage the technical office of the Nuove Terme and induced to visit, traveling by train, spa centers in Switzerland, Bohemia and Germany drawing inspiration for the renewal of the city.

Where there were sown or uncultivated fields and marshes, he created wonderful gardens, safeguarding the entire Park from any building speculation.

He encouraged those who had in mind to transform the modest Inn into a Grand Hotel.

He facilitated theatrical and variety activities, the Caffè Chantans, the widespread dissemination of electric light.

He began to trade not only water but also the salts extracted from the Tamerici springs, having Bernardini build a special building in 1904 for the extraction and sale of the same near the Tamerici and Leopoldine establishments, the Pietro Grocco Thermal Institute named after him in 1956, on the occasion of the centenary of his birth.

In short, Baragiola was the champion of all those structures that made Bagni di Montecatini the queen of Waters, well-being and entertainment.

The village he had found upon his arrival, with just over 1400 inhabitants, had become a city of European fame and stature upon his death in 1915.