Roma Ostiense railway station

Roma Ostiense is a railway station in Piazza dei Partigiani serving the Ostiense district of Rome, Italy, a short distance from the Porta San Paolo. It is run by the Centostazioni[1] arm of the Ferrovie dello Stato group and the urban rail lines FR1, FR3, and FR5 run through the station. It is linked with the Piramide Metro B station and the Roma Porta San Paolo station on the Rome-Lido railway line.

Roma Ostiense
Station building seen from Porta San Paolo
LocationPiazzale dei Partigiani
00100 Rome
Italy
Coordinates41°52′22.15″N 12°29′4.98″E
Owned byRete Ferroviaria Italiana
Operated byCentostazioni
Line(s)Pisa-Livorno-Grosseto–Roma
Distance6.692 km (4.158 mi)
from Roma Termini
Platforms6 (11 tracks)
Connections
History
Opened1940 (1940)
Electrified3,000 V
Location
Roma Ostiense
Location in Lazio
Roma Ostiense
Location in Italy

History
Hitler's arrival in Rome meet at the station by King Victor Emmanuel III and Mussolini.

To commemorate the forthcoming visit of Adolf Hitler to Rome in 1938, the current Ostiense station was built, replacing an existing rural railway station, with the aim of creating a monumental station to receive the German dictator. A new road was also built to connect the station with Porta San Paolo - this was initially named Via A. Hitler but, after World War II, it became Viale delle Cave Ardeatine, as a way of commemorating the victims of Nazi occupation.[2]

Hitler's visit to Rome is cinematically recreated in director Ettore Scola's film Una giornata particolare, who also used archived newsreel footage[3] showing the actual meeting between Hitler, Benito Mussolini, and Victor Emanuel III.

The building

Italian architect Roberto Narducci designed the station.[4] In addition to being built in the architectural style favoured by Hitler, the design of the station's marble facade was almost identical to that of the Italian pavilion at the 1942 Rome World's Fair (a design never fully realised due to the Second World War). The station building was inaugurated on October 28, 1940.

The entire facade is made of Travertine marble and the entrance is marked by a columned portico. On the right side of the façade is a relief by Francesco Nagni representing the mythical figures of Bellerophon and Pegasus. On the left is a fountain built in 1957. A series of black and white floor mosaics illustrate various themes and legends of Rome's history.

South of the tracks, the station authority constructed a new section to help Ostiense serve as a terminal station for passengers arriving from Leonardo da Vinci Airport during the 1990 World Cup, which accumulated a variety of commercial activities. However, following the decline in the number of passengers after the end of the World Cup, the new section was quickly abandoned and the various shops that were housed there began to close. In 2012, the building was converted to a new branch of Mario Batali's restaurant/market chain Eataly.[5]

The square
The fountain of Piazzale dei Partigiani immortalized in the final scene of Carlo Verdone's Un sacco bello in 1980.

The square outside of the station was named Piazzale dei Partigiani after World War II.[6] Now, the square's primary function is a bus terminal and parking facility. Before 1990, however, the piazza was embellished with a well-maintained garden and a now-nonfunctioning fountain that was built in the 1950s as part of the design of the station's architect Roberto Narducci. The fountain was inexplicably excluded from the modernization and renovations for the 1990 World Cup, even though the square was part of the ambitious "Cento Piazze" beautification project.[7] The small palm gardens that surround the parking lot are today occupied by a number of homeless people, asylum seekers, and political refugees.[8] Every Monday and Friday, Red Cross volunteers use the square to distribute food to the city's homeless population, despite protests from the area's residents who say that the organization arbitrarily selected the site.[9]

Services

The station offer the following services:

  • Ticket office
  • Automatic Ticket Machine
  • Waiting Room
  • Toilets
  • Polizia Ferroviaria Offices
  • Bar
  • Restaurant
  • Taxi Stand

Interchanges
  • Ostiense station shortly after completion in 1940
  • View of the lines from the entrance of Cristoforo Colombo highway
  • Station and piazzale
  • The station from a neighbouring building, with the Piramide station in the background

Notes and references
  1. "http://www.centostazioni.it/cst/Le-stazioni/Lazio/Roma-Ostiense". www.centostazioni.it (in Italian). Retrieved 2018-07-19. External link in |title= (help)
  2. "INTRODUCTION - Mussolini's Rome: Rebuilding the Eternal City".
  3. "AXIS AND EMPIRE - Mussolini's Rome: Rebuilding the Eternal City".
  4. "AXIS AND EMPIRE - Mussolini's Rome: Rebuilding the Eternal City".
  5. Bellini, Nicola; Clergeau, Cécile; Etcheverria, Olivier (2018-10-09). Gastronomy and Local Development: The Quality of Products, Places and Experiences. ISBN 9781351743938.
  6. "WAR AND RESISTANCE - Mussolini's Rome: Rebuilding the Eternal City".
  7. "Cento Piazze" - Comune di Roma Archived November 17, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
  8. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2009-04-09. Retrieved 2013-07-23.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link), Report in "Il Messaggero" 18 July 2008
  9. , Report in "Corriere della Sera" 15 October 2006

See also

Media related to Roma Ostiense railway station at Wikimedia Commons

Preceding station   Lazio regional railways   Following station
toward Orte
FR1
TerminusFR3
toward Viterbo Porta Fiorentina
toward Roma Termini
FR5
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