ITALY - Centrale Station

Milano Centrale station is one of the great railway stations of the world, it is also one of the few "Temples to Fascism" still in regular use today. Designed by architect Ulisee Stacchini it was opened in 1931 which of course was during Mussolini's tenure as head of state. The station is therefore in an overpowering style designed to reinforce the power of the state over the people and both intimidate and impress its users. If you look at the pictures below you will see what i mean. And let me now dispell one of the great railway myths of all time - Mussolini did NOT get the trains to run on time - he got the trains that he was travelling on to run on time!

However, like many buildings from that era, Milano Centrale has a dark side which has only recently been acknowledged with the opening of a memorial in its basement.

Many large railway stations, including those in the UK, had large areas under the platforms for processing mail. Milan's mail would be sorted at a nearby sorting office, the sacks of post were then brought to the station and loaded into mail vans at special platforms directly under the main concourse. A traverser (think turntable but operating in straight lines to move rolling stock between parallel tracks) would then move the mail vans so they could be shunted into a large lift. The lift would raise the vans, one at a time up to the tracks above so they could be shunted into trains and sent to their destination. Processing mail on the railways has always been very efficiently done.

In 1943 this part of the station was repurposed for the processing of Jews on their way to the death camps including Auschwitz. It was an ideal place for the regime to do this, out of sight of the Milanese commuters walking on the platforms above and the basic operation of the site from a railway point of view was almost the same as it was with the mail. After the war it reverted to processing post and then fell into disuse but has recently been restored and opened to the public as a memorial.

Obviously moving but also interesting in equal measure and it was good to see that most of the visitors were part of several school or youth groups - education after all is the most important part of memorials like this. There is always something that really stands out and lodges in your memory. For me it was a large sign on the wall of the wagon lift that said in Italian that the lift was not to be used for people.

Milano Centrale still has other secrets to give up. On Platform 21 (I think behind the doors in the photo below) there is an area, rarely open to the public, that was, in the original plans, the Royal Waiting Room for the Italian royal family. Also repurposed, this time for state visitors from Germany during the Second World War, it apparently has swastikas inlaid in the parquet flooring.

Today's post has been more sombre than usual, but it is a place that should be visited and a story that should be told, especially for someone like me who is interested in trains and railways.

However to finish on a lighter note, it is still Christmas and the station is decorated accordingly so today's Christmas tree comes from Milano Centrale station.