Firenze Santa Maria Novella (in English Florence Santa Maria Novella) or Stazione di Santa Maria Novella is a terminus railway station in Florence,

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

. The station is used by 59 million people every year and is one of the busiest in Italy. It is at the northern end of the Florence–Rome high-speed railway line ''Direttissima'', which was completed on 26 May 1992 and the southern end of the Bologna–Florence railway line, opened on 22 April 1934. A new high speed line to

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...

opened on 13 December 2009. The station is also used by regional trains on lines connecting to:

Pisa Pisa ( , or ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for its leaning tower, the cit ...

Livorno Livorno () is a port city on the Ligurian Sea on the western coast of Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of 158,493 residents in December 2017. It is traditionally known in English as Leghorn (pronou ...

( Leopolda railway); Lucca, Viareggio (

Viareggio–Florence railway The Viareggio–Florence railway (Italian language, Italian: ''Ferrovia Viareggio-Firenze'') is a line built between 1848 and 1890 connecting the Tuscany, Tuscan cities of Florence, Prato, Pistoia, Lucca and Viareggio. The first section from Flore ...

);

(

Bologna–Florence railway The Bologna–Florence railway is one of the major links in the Italian rail network, connecting the railways of the Po Valley with the railways of Tuscany and central Italy under the Apennines. It is also known as the Bologna–Florence diretti ...

) and

Faenza Faenza (, , ; rgn, Fènza or ; la, Faventia) is an Italian city and comune of 59,063 inhabitants in the province of Ravenna, Emilia-Romagna, situated southeast of Bologna. Faenza is home to a historical manufacture of majolica-ware glazed eart ...

( Faentina railway).

History

The station was inaugurated on 3 February 1848 to serve the railway to

Pistoia Pistoia (, is a city and ''comune'' in the Italian region of Tuscany, the capital of a province of the same name, located about west and north of Florence and is crossed by the Ombrone Pistoiese, a tributary of the River Arno. It is a typi ...

and Pisa, and was initially called ''Maria Antonia'' (from the name of the railway, named in honour of Princess Maria Antonia of the Two Sicilies); it was much closer to the

Santa Maria Novella Santa Maria Novella is a church in Florence, Italy, situated opposite, and lending its name to, the city's main railway station. Chronologically, it is the first great basilica in Florence, and is the city's principal Dominican church. The chu ...

church than the current station. It was renamed after the church after the

unification of Italy The unification of Italy ( it, Unità d'Italia ), also known as the ''Risorgimento'' (, ; ), was the 19th-century Political movement, political and social movement that resulted in the Merger (politics), consolidation of List of historic stat ...

. In 1932 through a number of newspaper editorials, published in La Nazione, Florence's main daily, Romano Romanelli a reputed and influential Florentine sculptor, criticized the original project by the Architect Mazzoni for the new Firenze Santa Maria Novella railway station. A constructive debate resulted in the final choice of the project sponsored by the Architect Marcello Piacentini and designed by Gruppo Toscano. The station was designed in 1932 by a group of architects known as the ''Gruppo Toscano'' (Tuscan Group) of which Giovanni Michelucci and Italo Gamberini, Berardi, Baroni, Lusanna were among the members; the building was constructed between 1932 and 1934. The plan of the building, as seen from above, looks as if it were based on the fascio littorio, the symbol of

Benito Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (; 29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his deposition in 194 ...

National Fascist Party The National Fascist Party ( it, Partito Nazionale Fascista, PNF) was a political party in Italy, created by Benito Mussolini as the political expression of Italian Fascism and as a reorganization of the previous Italian Fasces of Combat. The ...

, many documents give this explanation, but, that shape was forced by the pre-existing station. The "blade" represented by the first two-passenger tracks and the postal ones were in fact the extension of the 1861 alignment which included the tracks of the line from

. The building is a prime example of Italian modernism, but has little to do with the Italian Rationalism movement, being more strongly influenced by the Viennese architecture of Loos and Hoffman, with perhaps a nod to Wright; but it is the building's complete originality that makes it outstanding. The competition to design the station was controversial but the approval by Mussolini of the Gruppo Toscano project was hailed as an official acceptance of modernity. The station was designed to replace the aging Maria Antonia Station, one of the few example of architecture by

I. K. Brunel Isambard Kingdom Brunel (; 9 April 1806 – 15 September 1859) was a British civil engineer who is considered "one of the most ingenious and prolific figures in engineering history," "one of the 19th-century engineering giants," and "on ...

in Italy, and to serve as a gateway to the city centre. The Gruppo Toscano was only responsible for the main frontal building of the station. The

heating plant A heating plant, also called a physical plant, or steam plant, generates thermal energy in the form of steam for use in district heating applications. Unlike combined heat and power installations which produce thermal energy as a by-product ...

, platforms, other facilities and details such as benches were all designed in a contrasting style by the official Ministry of Communications architect,

Angiolo Mazzoni Angiolo Mazzoni (May 21, 1894 – September 28, 1979) was a state architect and engineer of the Italian Fascist government of the 1920s and 1930s. Mazzoni designed hundreds of public buildings, post offices and train stations during the Interwar ...

. The benches and baggage shelves illustrated on this page were not part of the Gruppo Toscano project. Outside and adjacent to the station is also Michelucci's white marble Palazzina Reale di Santa Maria Novella, built to host the Royal family on visits to Florence. National Library manuscripts being washed in Florence after the 1966 flood of the Arno - UNESCO - PHOTO 0000001407 0001 - Restoration

National Library manuscripts being washed in Florence after the 1966 flood of the Arno - UNESCO - PHOTO 0000001407 0001 - Restoration

While it is of a 'modern' design, the use of pietra forte for the station's stone frontage was intended to respond to and contrast with the nearby

Gothic architecture Gothic architecture (or pointed architecture) is an architectural style that was prevalent in Europe from the late 12th to the 16th century, during the High and Late Middle Ages, surviving into the 17th and 18th centuries in some areas. It e ...

of the church of Santa Maria Novella. The interior of the station features a dramatic metal and glass roof with large skylights over the main passenger concourse, which is aligned perpendicular to the tracks and acts as a pedestrian street connecting one side of the city with the other. The skylights span the passenger concourse without any supporting columns, giving a feeling of openness and vast space and reinforcing the convergence of all the public functions of the station on the passenger concourse. Near platform #16 there is a statue and a memorial plaque in remembrance of the train loads of Jewish people who were deported from Italy to

Nazi concentration camps From 1933 to 1945, Nazi Germany operated more than a thousand concentration camps, (officially) or (more commonly). The Nazi concentration camps are distinguished from other types of Nazi camps such as forced-labor camps, as well as concen ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Train services

The station is served by the following services: *High speed services (''Frecciarossa'') ''Turin – Milan – Bologna – Florence – Rome – Naples – Salerno'' *High speed services (''Frecciarossa'') ''Venice – Padua – Bologna – Florence – Rome – Naples – Salerno'' *High speed services (''Frecciargento'') ''Trieste – Venice – Padua – Bologna – Florence – Rome'' *High speed services (''Frecciargento'') ''Udine – Treviso – Venice – Padua – Bologna – Florence – Rome'' *High speed services (''Frecciargento'') ''Venice – Padua – Bologna – Florence – Rome'' *High speed services (''Frecciargento'') ''Venice – Padua – Bologna – Florence – Rome – Fiumicino Airport''

References

* *

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Firenze Santa Maria Novella Railway Station Santa Maria Novella Railway Station Railway stations opened in 1934 Art Deco railway stations 1934 establishments in Italy Italian fascist architecture Modernist architecture in Italy

History

Train services

See also

References

External links