(1859 – 1943)
Vittorio Sella was born in Biella on 28 August 1859 of Giuseppe Venanzio and Clementina Mosca Riatel. He learnt the rudiments of photography from his father, a textile entrepreneur, photography expert and author of Il plico del fotografo, the first theoretical and practical treatise on photography.
(1865 – 1948)
Son of Giuseppe Venanzio, industrialist, chemist and keen Biellese photographer, and of Clementina Mosca Riatel, Erminio graduated in 1887 in Engineering at the University of Turin and later specialised in Meteorological Sciences at the University of Berlin.
(1827 – 1884)
Fifth son of the twenty children of Maurizio and Rosa Sella, Quintino was born in Sella di Mosso in 1827. Sent by his father to study Hydraulic Engineering he graduated at the age of twenty at the University of Turin.
(1855 – 1936)
Son of the wool entrepreneur Giuseppe Venanzio Sella and Clementina Mosca Riatel. After the sudden death of his father in 1876, he gave up his studies and took over the management of the Maurizio Sella Wool Mill until the Nineteen Twenties.
(1853 – 1931)
Antonio Sella was born in Zumaglia into a family of farmers. When he was six years old his father died and Antonio abandoned his studies in order to help his mother and young brothers in the fields. At the age of ten he moved to Germany with a friend and began to work in hotels where, thanks to his intelligence, he was soon given important jobs.
(1823 – 1876)
Son of Maurizio and Rosa Sella, Giuseppe Venanzio Sella was born in Sella di Mosso on 10 July 1823. After completing a philosophy course at the Royal College he continued his studies in Turin where he attended both business school and chemistry lessons.
(1828 – 1895)
Son of Bartolomeo and Anna Zerbino, at the age of 13 Vittorio attended the painting school of Grenoble following in the footsteps of his maternal grandfather, Matteo Zerbino of Callabiana, pupil and collaborator of Bernardino Galliari, the famous set designer of Andorno.
(1901 – 2003)
Federico, nephew of Gaspare, one of the most important neoclassical architects in Biella, and son of Salvatore, an engineer specialised in the construction of railway lines, enrolled in 1919-1920 at the Polytechnic of Turin. He graduated in 1925, presenting a project on the construction of a railway line between Biella and Ivrea, including a tunnel under the Serra.
(1884 – 1957)
Son of Felice, descendant of an important family of textile industrialists of Pollone, his name is particularly associated with mountain climbing (he was the first to climb the Matterhorn by the Furggen crest in 1911), and his travels outside Europe in the Caucasus (1910) and the Himalayas (1913).
(1873 – 1933)
Third born of Amedeo d’Aosta and nephew of Vittorio Emanuele II, Luigi Amedeo di Savoia was known internationally for his fame as an explorer. His sense of adventure drove him to tackle major ascents on the principal mountain ranges in the world and sent him across the seas of the entire globe.
