Civil engineering heritage: country profile – Italy

Abstract

This paper is a review of Italy’s civil engineering heritage after the unification of the country (1861/1870), one of the series of national profiles being published by Engineering History and Heritage. This paper excludes ancient engineering works, as in Italy, these fall under the heading of archaeological heritage for both legal and cultural purposes, and focuses only on the civil and structural engineering heritage of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It is presented under four headings: ‘Italy’s major civil engineering achievements’, ‘National and regional recognition of engineering heritage’, ‘Exemplar conservation of engineering structures’ and ‘Information sources for engineering heritage’. The paper discusses engineering structures of heritage importance, including major iron and steel structures developed in the nineteenth century, such as the 150 m arch railway bridge over the River Adda in Paderno (1886); the urban arcades of Milan (1864), Genoa (1874) and Naples (1887); early application of reinforced concrete in large structures such as Risorgimento Bridge in Rome (1911); concrete dams for the development of the hydroelectricity industry, such as the Santa Chiara dam in Sardinia (1924); reinforced-concrete bridges and viaducts for the reconstruction of the national highway network after World War II, such as the viaducts of the Autostrada del Sole (1956–1964); and signature structures in reinforced concrete such as Pier Luigi Nervi’s domes for the Olympic Games in Rome (1960), Riccardo Morandi’s Polcevera viaduct in Genoa (1966) and Sergio Musmeci’s Basento Bridge in Potenza (1975). The paper concludes with a short list of organisations involved in the conservation of engineering structures and sources giving further information about Italian engineering heritage.