On 20 December 2020, Roma Termini station turns 70 years old
Rome Termini is set to blow out 70 candles on 20 December. This special birthday celebrates a significant past – a glorious history that has accompanied Italy’s economic and social development – and a present and future focused on innovation, sustainability and technology. In all this time, one goalpost has never budged: to be a key resource for Italy, not only as a logistics hub for the Capital but also a place of emotions, lives that intertwine, stories of greetings, meetings, embraces and farewells, a place of departures and arrivals.
We want to express the 70 years of Roma Termini through your stories, to unite as the protagonists of this important event. Search amongst your photos of memories and share them on your social media channels with an image that links you to Termini Station through the hashtags #Termini70 and #RailwayHeart. The most beautiful will be shared on the FS Group’s official social media channels.
Some interesting facts about Roma Termini. Did you know...?
The Dinosaur
The canopy over the station is known to all as the Dinosaur, since it resembles a stylised skeleton. In truth, it follows the profiles of the remnants of the Roman walls adjacent to the station, begun by Lucius Tarquinius Priscus in the 6th century and concluded under Servius Tullius.
Baglioni and the OSRAM Lamp-post
Installed in 1960 in the space adjacent to the station on the occasion of the Olympics, the OSRAM Lamp-post came to represent the most iconic meeting point in Rome for the next 20 years or so. The Lamp, which was removed in 1983, is also cited in a famous song by Claudio Baglioni: “Lampada Osram, di fronte alla stazione, giornali cartoline, le insegne, le réclames (Osram Lamp-post, in front of the station, newspapers, postcards, the signs, the advertisements)”.
Past and Present
The ancient Roman walls diagonally traversing the current station. A perfect fusion of fragments of history, as a symbol of the city’s past and the modernity of the hub’s current services, such as the shops and restaurants.
Carosa High-end Fashion House
In 1959, the Carosa High-end Fashion House came to Roma Termini. Young and elegant wearers parade within the station that was transformed into the set of a dream of fashion and beauty. The new FS Settebello electric train, with its futuristic forms, formed the backdrop for the event.
Servius Tullius catches the train
The motto of the winning architects of the contest of ideas for the construction of the station in 1947 was “Servio Tullio prende il treno” (akin to “Servius Tullius catches the train”), recalling the 6th king of Rome, under whom the walls surrounding the station were completed.
ACS
The first great computerised circulation control and command gear (Central Static Apparatus) was completed in Roma Termini in 1999. It was called “static", to highlight the new type of operation based on computer components (static boards) and not on electromechanical relays (with moving contacts).
The Scale Model
Until 1994, the Presidential Hall on Track 1 of Roma Termini housed an 18-metre-long scale model of the station, made by the railway worker Otello Brunetti and today housed in the National Railway Museum of Pietrarsa. A real work of art, the model was made entirely with materials self-produced by Brunetti himself and, in particular, tin boxes for the tracks and the overhead line.