Roma Termini Railway Station - Central Rome

Roma Termini (in Italian, Stazione Termini or Stazione di Roma Termini - Giovanni Paolo II) is the main railway station of Rome, Italy. It is named after the district of the same name, which in turn took its name from ancient Baths of Diocletian (in Latin, thermae), which lie across the street from the main entrance.

Overview

The station has regular train services to all major Italian cities, as well as daily international services to Paris, Munich, Geneva, Basel, and Vienna. With twenty-nine platforms and over 150 million passengers each year, Roma Termini is one of the largest railway stations in Europe.

Termini is also the main hub for public transport inside Rome. Both current Rome Metro lines (A and B) intersect at Termini metro station, and a major bus station is located at Piazza dei Cinquecento, the square in front of the station. However, the main tram lines of the city cross at Porta Maggiore, some 1,500 metres east of the station.

On 23 December 2006, the station was dedicated to Pope John Paul II.

Center of Rome

History

On 25 February 1863, Pope Pius IX opened the first, temporary Termini Station as the terminus of the Romeâ€"Frascati, Romeâ€"Civitavecchia and Rome-Ceprano lines.

The first two lines previously had separate stations elsewhere in the city, and, as the third line was under development, the city chose to build one central station, as opposed to the Paris model of having separate terminus stations for each line or each direction. The dilapidated Villa Montalto-Peretti, erected in the 16th Century by Pope Sixtus V, was chosen as the site for this new station, which was to be called the "Stazione Centrale delle Ferrovie Romane" (Central Station of Roman Railways).

Construction of the permanent station began in 1868, in the last years of the Papal Temporal Power over the city of Rome, and was completed in 1874 after the Capture of Rome and installing of government of United Italy. It was laid out according to a plan by the architect Salvatore Bianchi. The front of this station reached Via Cavour, which means it stuck some 200 metres deeper into the city than the current station.

In 1937, it was decided to replace the old station, as part of the planning for the 1942 World's Fair, which was never held because of the outbreak of World War II. The old station was demolished, and part of the new station was constructed, but works were halted in 1943 as the Italian fascist government collapsed. The side structures of the design by Angiolo Mazzoni del Grande are still part of the current-day station.

During the Second World War, on 19th July 1943, Rome was bombed by the Americans after strong pressure from the British War Time Cabinet. The Americans were not very keen to bomb "the Eternal City" and refused to bomb not only the neutral Vatican State (along with churches and other buildings belonging to the Vatican which were located outside its territory but inside the city), but also other historical monuments like the Colosseum. The railway connections between the north and south of Italy was however an obvious military target. Hence Stazione Termini and the nearby San Lorenzo district became the focal point of the bombardment. But in order to destroy all railway connections between the south and north of Italy, the station was still a strange choice of target, since it was an end station. The direct railway lines which could be used for transports between the north and the south were located further east (and they were also naturally bombed).

The terminal building today

The current building was designed by the two teams selected through a competition process in 1947: Leo Calini and Eugenio Montuori; Massimo Castellazzi, Vasco Fadigati, Achille Pintonello and Annibale Vitellozzi. It was inaugurated in 1950. The building is characterized by the linear lobby hall, a tall space of monumental dimensions. This great hall is fronted by full height glass walls, and is covered with a concrete roof that consists of a flattened and segmented arch, a modernist version of a Roman bath's barrel vault. The vault is structurally integrated with a cantilevered canopy that extends over the entrance drive. The end result is a gravity-defying modernist structure that also recalls a similar achievement of Roman architecture. The back of the hall leads to a transition space of ticketing functions before reaching the train shed, and is topped by an even longer building block that houses a 10-story hotel, clad with a façade of travertine.

Architecturally, the building punctuates the sense of arrival to Rome, and communicates a sense of the Eternal City as both modern and traditional, looking forward to the future as well as remembering its history. Its bold presence in the urban fabric expresses the diversity of the City's history, and speaks of the dramatic new scale of the modern industrial economy of Italy.

The anodized aluminium frieze panels set in sequence along the length of the glass wall are the work of artist Amerigo Tot: the composition is about capturing the dynamics in sound and speed of a train.

Servian Walls

A length of the early Roman Servian Wall is preserved outside the station.

Train services

The station is served by the following services (incomplete):

• High speed services (Frecciarossa) Turin - Milan - Bologna - Florence - Rome - Naples - Salerno
• High speed services (Frecciarossa) Venice - Padua - Bologna - Florence - Rome - Naples - Salerno
• High speed services (Italo) Turin - Milan - Bologna - Florence - Rome - Naples - Salerno
• High speed services (Frecciargento) Venice - Padua - Bologna - Florence - Rome
• High speed services (Frecciargento) Bolzano/Bozen - Verona - Bologna - Florence - Rome
• High speed services (Frecciargento) Brescia - Verona - Bologna - Florence - Rome
• High speed services (Frecciargento) Rome - Foggia - Bari - Brindisi - Lecce
• High speed services (Frecciargento) Rome - Naples - Salerno - Lamezia Terme - Reggio di Calabria
• High speed services (Frecciabianca) Turin - Genoa - La Spezia - Pisa - Livorno - Rome
• High speed services (Frecciabianca) Genoa - La Spezia - Pisa - Florence - Rome
• High speed services (Frecciabianca) Ravenna - Rimini - Foligno - Terni - Rome
• Intercity services Rome - Naples - Salerno - Lamezia Terme - Messina - Palermo
• Intercity services Rome - Naples - Salerno - Lamezia Terme - Messina - Siracusa
• Intercity services Rome - Naples - Salerno - Lamezia Terme - Reggio di Calabria
• Intercity services Rome - Naples - Salerno - Taranto
• Intercity services Rome - Foggia - Bari (- Taranto)
• Intercity services Ventimiglia - Genoa - La Spezia - Pisa - Livorno - Rome
• Intercity services Turin - Genoa - La Spezia - Pisa - Livorno - Rome - Naples - Salerno
• Intercity services Livorno - Civitavecchia - Rome - Naples
• Intercity services Trieste - Venice - Padua - Bologna - Florence - Rome
• Intercity services Ancona - Foligno - Terni - Rome
• Intercity services Perugia - Foligno - Terni - Rome
• Night train (EuroNight) Vienna - Klagenfurt - Villach - Venice - Bologna - Florence - Rome
• Night train (CityNightLine) Munich - Wörgl - Innsbruck - Verona - Bologna - Florence - Rome
• Night train (Intercity Notte) Trieste - Venice - Padua - Bologna - Rome
• Night train (Intercity Notte) Bolzano/Bozen - Verona - Rome
• Night train (Intercity Notte) Rome - Foggia - Bari - Brindisi - Lecce
• Night train (Intercity Notte) Rome - Naples - Messina - Siracusa
• Regional services (Leonardo Express) Rome - Fiumicino Airport
• Regional services (Treno Regionale) Rome - Pomezia - Latina - Formia - Minturno - Naples
• Regional services (Treno Regionale) Rome - Pomezia - Nettuno
• Regional services (Treno Regionale) Rome - Venafro - Campobasso
• Regional services (Treno Regionale) Rome - Ciampino - Zagarolo - Collefero - Frosinone
• Regional services (Treno Regionale) Rome - Ciampino - Albano Laziale
• Regional services (Treno Regionale) Rome - Ciampino - Velletri
• Regional services (Treno Regionale) Civitavecchia - Cerveteri - Rome

In popular culture

• Stazione Termini (1953)
• Indiscretion of an American Wife (1954)