1881The Wiener Union - Baugesellschaft acquires the mining rights and the extraction plant
The Viennese building firm Wiener Union - Baugesellschaft was one of the Danube Monarchy’s leading companies of the time. Its core businesses included, among other things, the construction of railway lines. This company was later entrusted with the construction of the Vinschgau railway, opened in 1906.
The company secured all the available extraction rights not only in Lasa and Covelano but also in Sterzing. It invested heavily in infrastructures such as housing for workers, transport routes, ramps for the marble blocks on steep slopes and in various excavation works to access new layers of stone for extraction. The company acquired new machinery and adapted the factory buildings to the needs of the moment.
It had 200 workers on its payroll and offered incentives and social conditions that were unique for the times, such as cheap food from the company-owned store and worker insurance against sickness and accident.
