On 10 July 1976 a dioxin cloud released by the ICMESA chemical plant on the Meda border drifted over Seveso and wrote the town into Europe's environmental history: the accident gave rise to the "Seveso Directives", the EU rules that still govern hazardous industrial sites today.
The worst-hit area, since remediated, is now the Bosco delle Querce, a memorial woodland whose paths run among thousands of trees planted after the disaster. This Brianza town of 22,733 residents, long a home of furniture makers, shows how a wound can grow into a place of nature and awareness.
Near Seveso
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
