Industrial areas 1960
In 1960 specialized industrial areas with historical roots in handicraft and proto-industrial regions of earlier centuries were still alive. Most of them have since then been completely wiped out, others have lost their character and been transformed. The shoe, textile and steel industries and mining are examples of this. But the observant traveller will see everywhere traces of the old industrial regions in buildings and plants, either dilapidated or put to new uses.

Today manufacturing industries are concentrated in large-scale plants but play a minor role in employment.