Gruppo Ferrovie dello Stato

Frequented by some 137 thousand persons per day, 50 million per year, Napoli Centrale is a railway junction of crucial importance for the entire national railways system, with a daily traffic flow of 390 trains. It is located in piazza Giuseppe Garibaldi. The railway hub is comprised of “Napoli Centrale” station at ground level and the “Piazza Garilbaldi” underground station, which has two tracks for the metro and two for the national railways system. In addition, there is a “Circumvesuviana” local railway station beneath Corso Lucci.

History

The first railway station in Napoli was built in 1866, designed by the architect and town planner Enrico Alvino, who established its shape and position in the framework of a town planning study for the reorganisation of the city’s street fabric. Between 1954 and 1960 the 19th century station was demolished and a new travellers building was erected, 250 metres further back in relation to its previous position, thus creating what is now Piazza Garibaldi. The new building, which was inaugurated in 1966, is the combined result of the three projects that won the design competition launched in 1954: the complex features a cantilevered roof structure and is characterised by geometrical modulations based on a triangular composition matrix.

The pedestrian walkways system connecting the underground station with the square and the railway station above runs about -4/-3,5 metres below ground level, and contains shops, ticketing offices, surveillance areas and bathrooms. At present, the various structures and fixtures on the basement floor are not very functional, and their attractiveness and security are also less than satisfactory. On the ground floor, with the passing of time the cluttered accumulation of commercial cubicles and precarious structures against the glass walls has negatively impacted the transparency and openness of the structure towards the la piazza.
The roof of Napoli Centrale station is made up of triangular components of uniform size, united and supported by tripodic pillars.