Pietrarsa railway museum
Encyclopedia
The Pietrarsa railway museum is situated between the suburb of Naples
and San Giorgio a Cremano
, of which the former village of Pietrarsa forms a part. It lies south of Naples in southern Italy
just to the side of the Naples–Portici railway line, the first one in Italy. It is served by the Pietrarsa-S.Giorgio a Cremano station to which it is connected by a pedestrian subway.
, a plant that produced most of the boilers for locomotives and steam-driven ships in the kingdom in the first half of the 19th century. With the unification of Italy
, the construction of steam boilers was taken over by industry in the north and the Pietrarsa workshops were relegated to the role of a repair facility for the railways. It served in that capacity until the 1970s when the facility was rendered obsolete by advances in diesel and electrical technology.
The museum contains original engines as well as scale models incorporated into a display of the history of trains in Italy. The displays include a copy of Bayard, the first locomotive in Italy, which started its run on the Naples–Portici railway line on 3 October 1838.
The museum opened in 1989, underwent an intensive restoration in 2006 and reopened on 19 December 2007. According to notices posted at the site in summer 2011, it is presently closed for further renovations, until 11th September 2011.
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
and San Giorgio a Cremano
San Giorgio a Cremano
San Giorgio a Cremano is a primarily residential town and comune in the province of Naples, in the Campania region of southern Italy. It is located on the foothills of Mount Vesuvius to the west of the volcano, and is six kilometres to the south east of the centre of Naples...
, of which the former village of Pietrarsa forms a part. It lies south of Naples in southern Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
just to the side of the Naples–Portici railway line, the first one in Italy. It is served by the Pietrarsa-S.Giorgio a Cremano station to which it is connected by a pedestrian subway.
Overview
The museum is located on the premises of the former metal foundry of the Kingdom of NaplesKingdom of Naples
The Kingdom of Naples, comprising the southern part of the Italian peninsula, was the remainder of the old Kingdom of Sicily after secession of the island of Sicily as a result of the Sicilian Vespers rebellion of 1282. Known to contemporaries as the Kingdom of Sicily, it is dubbed Kingdom of...
, a plant that produced most of the boilers for locomotives and steam-driven ships in the kingdom in the first half of the 19th century. With the unification of Italy
Italian unification
Italian unification was the political and social movement that agglomerated different states of the Italian peninsula into the single state of Italy in the 19th century...
, the construction of steam boilers was taken over by industry in the north and the Pietrarsa workshops were relegated to the role of a repair facility for the railways. It served in that capacity until the 1970s when the facility was rendered obsolete by advances in diesel and electrical technology.
The museum contains original engines as well as scale models incorporated into a display of the history of trains in Italy. The displays include a copy of Bayard, the first locomotive in Italy, which started its run on the Naples–Portici railway line on 3 October 1838.
The museum opened in 1989, underwent an intensive restoration in 2006 and reopened on 19 December 2007. According to notices posted at the site in summer 2011, it is presently closed for further renovations, until 11th September 2011.
Sources
- Centro Relazioni Aziendali FS (a cura di), Da Pietrarsa e Granili a Santa Maria La Bruna, Napoli-Roma, 1971
- Museo Nazionale Ferroviario di Napoli Pietrarsa. Riuso musealistico delle antiche officine borboniche, Roma, Ferrovie dello Stato, 1982
- AGF, Da Pietrarsa a Pietrarsa. Storia e immagini del treno italiano, Roma, 1990
- A. Tanzillo (a cura di ), Il Museo Nazionale Ferroviario di Pietrarsa, (s.l. e s.d.)
- Gian Guido Turchi, 150 anni e un museo, in I Treni 99,1989