ITER - Stazione ferroviaria Brignole

After the construction of the town’s first station (Genova Piazza Principe 1856) on the Turin-Genoa line, the rapid development of traffic soon led to an expansion of the railway network towards west in anticipation of a connection with central Italy. The railway line, which reached Brignole, was built very slowly and at intervals for economic reasons and physical problems with the layout, often on a sheer cliff.

The first structure of the “East Station” was a wooden building in piazza Brignole, an area that was outside the town center at the time and had till then been the site of the N.S. del Calvario convent, which was knocked down to build the new structure. The piazza Brignole station was a shed with sloping roof called the “shack” that housed the purely necessary rooms without any comfort. The structure was temporary, because Brignole, originally a terminal station, was supposed to become a transit station after its connection with Principe. This project was carried out in 1872 when the Traversata tunnel was built. Projects for the news stations started to be made in 1876, but after several ups and downs, the detailed plan for the new station was approved only in 1899. The architectural and decorative project was designed by engineer Ottino, an officer of Società Strade Ferrate del Mediterraneo. For the location of the new building an area was selected in piazza Verdi, slightly further east of piazza Brignole. In 1905, although the works had not been completed yet, the “shack” was knocked down and the new station became operative due to the enthusiasm for the world exhibition, which was laid out in the area in front of the new station.

The passenger building, back then one of the most representative stations of the Italian railway network, was designed using classical elements within the framework of the current historicist eclecticism. The interior was frescoed by the Tuscan painter Luigi De Servi with images of the “Greatness of Genoa on land” and the “Greatness of Genoa on sea”, as well as portraits of distinguished people from Genoa (C.

Colombo, A. Doria, G. Mazzini, …). Unfortunately, a bombing in 1942 did not spare the station and all interior decoration was destroyed. Reconstruction works started in 1947, but did not change the building substantially, which had remained substantially intact from an architectural point of view, although the roof of the central unit had collapsed. The 105-meter long building is developed on two floors, the lower of which at the level of the opposing square and the upper one at track level. The central unit still houses the ticket counters, while the side blocks, which originally housed accessory services and the lost-and-found office (on the left-hand side), the snack bar and the first-class and second-class waiting rooms (on the right-hand side), today are used for different purposes. Presently, the station is developed on several levels with different functions: systems and facilities on the underground level, ticket office and stores on road level, waiting rooms, bars and restaurants and railway rooms on the first floor, offices and housing on the upper floors. The decorations of the facade, pilaster strips, jambs and frames are made of white granite up to the first floor while the original iron and cast-iron platform shelters are still in good conditions. The station has been included in the revitalization program of the main Italian stations under the responsibility of Grandi Stazioni, one of the companies controlled by Ferrovie dello Stato.