An Old Italian Excellence.

The Chiozza & Turchi soap factory was founded in 1812 in Pontelagoscuro, in the province of Ferrara, when the Po River marked the border between the Papal States and Austrian Veneto. Pontelagoscuro was then a strategic location for river trade.

Chiozza & Turchi's scented soaps were qualitatively superior to the standards of the time and were exported worldwide: between 1861 and 1911, Chiozza & Turchi received prestigious awards and recognition at national and international exhibitions. "Saunara," as the Ferrara residents called the company, was among the suppliers to the British Royal House during those years.

A cutting-edge industry for its time, by 1871 it was producing seven thousand tons of ordinary soap and over seventy thousand dozen scented soaps, exported worldwide. Following a fire that destroyed the factory and which was immediately rebuilt, the Phoenix was adopted as the company logo. It features prominently in the beautiful, meticulously crafted advertising posters, designed by artists of the caliber of Marcello Dudovich, Adolfo Hohenstein, Luigi Dal Monte Casoni, and Adolfo De Carolis.

 Soap making has a long history in Italy. The Romans used olive oil to wash themselves, but they made soap for washing clothes, as archaeological finds seem to demonstrate (a soap factory was found at Pompeii). In the Middle Ages, the centre of soap making was Marseilles, but Italian soap made with olive oil had a high reputation even then. In the eighteenth century, using soap for bathing became popular, and many soap factories were established in Europe. 

The origin of the name "soap" came much after the origin of the product itself. Roman mythologic tradition relates the origin of the name with Mount Sapo, situated close to the river Tíber in Rome. The story tells that it was in the on the side of this mountain that the chemical reaction of saponification was first produced, i.e. the rain water mixed with the ash and animal fat from ritual animal sacrifices, giving birth the origin of soap. Another custom exists that affirms that the origin of the name prodeeds from the town of Savona, situated close to Génova in Italy, where the first solid soap was made. Which highlights the etymological similarity between the name of the town and the French denomination of soap as "savon" and the italian "sapone".