Recovery Railroad Marmifera in Carrara

Expired last October 8th the deadline for the registration to the competition announced by the Municipality of Carrara for the recovery of the former Marmifera railway track.
From 09:00 a.m. of 04/12/2020 to 12:00 noon of 12/01/2021, the participants will be able to send their proposals.

The project must provide for the “reuse and re-functionalization of the route of the former marble railway for the creation of a multi-purpose axis dedicated to sustainable mobility and equipped green axis”.

The object of the intervention will be the realization of a link between the former station of San Martino and the FFSS station of Avenza and a connection between the latter and the coast (Viale Da Verrazzano).
In particular, as far as the first section is concerned, the project will have to guarantee a possible future reuse of the recovered site for the transit of railway type trains.

An ambitious and creative project, which if realized, will create a green and safe mobility along the City – Sea axis as well as an alternative cultural tourist route.

But what was the Marmifera Railway?

The Ferrovia Marmifera di Carrara was a railway track dedicated to the local transport of marble blocks that had to reach the port from the mountain to be embarked.

The first concession for the construction had been issued in 1866 to the private capital company formed by the Florentine knight Giuseppe Troyse-Barba, the secretary of Carrara Giuseppe Fossati and the engineer of the Municipality of Carrara, in 1874 was then founded the Private Marble Railway Company of Carrara.

The first two sections of the Marmifera Railway were built on the project of engineers Pietro Ganzoni and Carlo Willy, inaugurated in 1876, connected the foot of the excavation basins to the port of Carrara, connecting the towns of Avenza and San Martino with the pre-existing Avenza-Carrara railway.
Subsequently, according to the project of the engineers Sartorio and Leoni, an extension towards the basins of Gioia, Ravaccione-Polvaccio and Colonnata was realized, the new section was inaugurated in 1890.

The success of the Ferrovia Marmifera di Carrara for the transport of marble to the valley was remarkable, the fortunes of the Società Ferrovia Marmifera Privata lasted until the end of the 1920s when the crisis of 1929 had its harmful effects on the marble trade.

The Marmifera Railway was disused in 1964, by then definitively supplanted by road transport.

Among the architectural infrastructures still visible we find the “ferrets” (narrow and long tunnels) and some bridges, the bridges of Vara (in the picture) which however appear to us as reconstructed after the bombardments of the Second World War.

Find out more about the Marmifera Railway on the website of the Municipality of Carrara