Crespi d'Adda is a village in northern Italian and hamlet (frazione) of Capriate San Gervasio, a municipality in the province of Bergamo, Lombardy. It is a historic settlement and an outstanding example of the 19th and early 20th-century "company towns" built in Europe and North America by enlightened industrialists to meet the workers' needs. The site is still intact and is partly used for industrial purposes, although changing economic and social conditions now threaten its survival. Since 1995 it has been on UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites.
The town's company-built school, church and employee houses
The Crespi's Castle
Parish church
The castle
A model village is a type of mostly self-contained community, built from the late 18th century onwards by landowners and business magnates to house their workers. Although the villages are located close to the workplace, they are generally physically separated from them and often consist of relatively high-quality housing, with integrated community amenities and attractive physical environments. "Model" is used in the sense of an ideal to which other developments could aspire.
Almshouses in Saltaire, Yorkshire, typical of the architecture of the whole village
An example of houses at Port Sunlight.
Typical local shopping parade in Bournville village
Almshouses at Ripley Ville, Yorkshire. Built 1881 and now the only remaining example of the architecture of the village