La Furnasetta

This is a vertical kiln built by surveyor Luigi Marchino in 1872 for hydraulic lime production, later adapted in 1912 for natural Portland cement production under a patent by engineer Giovanni Sisto Eccettuato. It is a brick "tub" kiln with a single chimney, approximately 20 meters high. It operated continuously, designed to overcome the shortcomings of lime kilns by reducing process times and increasing clinker output.

From top to bottom, it consists of a marl loading mouth, a heating chamber, a connection chamber with a fuel loading mouth, an elliptical-section crucible, and a cooling chamber with a bottom grate with movable bars to remove the cooked material. Fuel was loaded in alternating layers with marl, descending from above with a special iron tool. Each batch typically contained three or four layers and was refilled only after removing the cooked cement from below. The process lasted two to three hours per batch. Draft control was managed through valves that opened and closed a channel in the diaphragm separating the two chimney chambers.

The last surviving relic of the Cementeria Marchino-Unicem in Casale Monferrato, "La Furnasetta" was fortunately preserved during the complete redevelopment of the Priocco district in the 1970s when the former factory site was transformed into a residential area. Today, it is owned by Buzzi.

Visits are available by appointment only, allowing visitors to appreciate the architecture and ancient engineering system while discovering an important testimony of the rich industrial archaeology of cement, promoted by Buzzi through the Association "Il Cemento nell'identità del Monferrato Casalese".