''Ascensore Castello d'Albertis-Montegalletto'' (the Albertis Castle – Montegalletto lift) is a combined
funicular
A funicular ( ) is a type of cable railway system that connects points along a railway track laid on a steep grade (slope), slope. The system is characterized by two counterbalanced carriages (also called cars or trains) permanently attached to ...
and
lift
Lift or LIFT may refer to:
Physical devices
* Elevator, or lift, a device used for raising and lowering people or goods
** Paternoster lift, a type of lift using a continuous chain of cars which do not stop
** Patient lift, or Hoyer lift, mobile ...
in
Genoa
Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...
,
Italy
Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
. It connects
via Balbi
Via or VIA may refer to the following:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Via'' (Volumes album), 2011
* Via (Thalia Zedek album), 2013
* VIA (music), Soviet and Russian term for a music collective
Businesses and organisations
* Via Foundation, a Cze ...
, near
Genova Piazza Principe railway station
Genova Piazza Principe railway station (commonly called ''Genova Principe'' or incorrectly ''Genova Porta Principe'') is the central station of Genoa and is located on Piazza Acquaverde, occupying the entire north side of Via Andrea Doria—where ...
, to corso Dogali near
Albertis Castle, home of the ''
Museo delle Culture del Mondo'' (Museum of World Cultures). It is run by
AMT Genova.
History
The lift was built in 1929 by a private company, the ''Società Ligure per Impianto ed Esercizio Ascensori'', to connect the
main railway station of Genoa with Montegalletto, a name now in disuse that indicated the area at the time subject to a large urban expansion. It rose some seventy meters in altitude, but to reach the two cabins that can seat twenty people, it was necessary to set off into the ground along a tunnel of about three hundred meters. The lift was used frequently by local residents as it had a lower ticket price than those of the local tram, bus and trolley; between 1963 and 1965 the owners replaced the lifts with more modern and fast replacements.
At the end of the 1960s the number of users experienced a gradual reduction due to the introduction of the unified tariff in the Genoa public transport which made it less convenient the use of the lift. On 1 February 1976 it became part of the AMT system (along with the Castelletto Ponente lift).
[AMT (a cura di), ''Storia del trasporto pubblico a Genova'', SAGEP Editrice, Genova, 1980, p. 338] The lifts remained in service until 1995, when the thirty-year useful life expired, the lifts were closed.
The current system
AMT decided not to renew the facility in the previous configuration as the need to travel the long pedestrian tunnel would have been unattractive to users. A preliminary design was created by engineer Michele Montanari of AMT which involved the construction of a
funicular
A funicular ( ) is a type of cable railway system that connects points along a railway track laid on a steep grade (slope), slope. The system is characterized by two counterbalanced carriages (also called cars or trains) permanently attached to ...
to connect to the
lifts.
Through a
tender, the works were assigned to a consortium led by
Poma Italy. The initial stage started with preparation of detailed design; the project was presented in January 2001 to the
Italian Minister of Transports for the necessary permits, which were granted on 14 November of the same year. Work began in September 2002 and ended in June 2004.
After a period of testing the lift, it was inaugurated and opened to the public on 15 December 2004.
Features and Operation
The lift consists basically of three subsystems:
* ''
Funicular
A funicular ( ) is a type of cable railway system that connects points along a railway track laid on a steep grade (slope), slope. The system is characterized by two counterbalanced carriages (also called cars or trains) permanently attached to ...
'' for transit in the horizontal tunnel;
* ''Translation system'' on tyres, as a
cableway
Cable transport is a broad class of transport modes that have cables. They transport passengers and goods, often in vehicles called cable cars. The cable may be driven or passive, and items may be moved by pulling, sliding, sailing, or by driv ...
;
* ''
Lift
Lift or LIFT may refer to:
Physical devices
* Elevator, or lift, a device used for raising and lowering people or goods
** Paternoster lift, a type of lift using a continuous chain of cars which do not stop
** Patient lift, or Hoyer lift, mobile ...
'' for the overcoming of the vertical section consists of two distinct platforms (one per cabin).
The two gondolas start simultaneously: the first from the valley station along the horizontal tunnel while the latter begins the descent from the corsa Dogali; the intersection of the gondolas is at the base of the lift shaft when both cabins are taken over from the translation system, while the descending gondola is hooked to the funicular system to start its horizontal path, the ascending gondola is placed on in the lift and raised toward the upstream station.
Technical data
References
External links
*
*
*
* {{cite web, url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pXSSLZpdW4, title=Video showing the lift in operation, website=
YouTube
YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
Funicular railways in Italy
Transport in Genoa