Recupero e valorizzazione delle ferrovie dismesse: il caso della linea Adriatico Appenninica Reuse and valorization of abandoned railways: the case of the Adriatic Apennine line

The paper analyzes an infrastructure that has been a strong sign of identity in the Marche landscape. This is the railway that has combined, for nearly fifty years, the coast and the mountains. The abandonment and degradation have caused the loss of an interesting architectural heritage represented by stations, toll stations, viaducts and bridges scattered along a route of about 57 km that runs through an area which is characterized by interesting natural and materials evidences. The first project, dating back to 1877, had studied a connecting railway line between the Adriatic and the historic center of Amandola, in the Sibillini Mountain, including further continuation towards Umbria and Lazio. The project was revived in 1903 and entrusted to the engineer Ernesto Besenzanica which in three years has been able to conclude the work, inaugurated on 14 December 1908. In 1921, the management company (FAA - Apennines Adriatic railways) requested the electrification of the line; in the summer of 1928, the first electrified line started to operate. Despite the numerous damages caused by the war, the service is taken up in 1949, to be permanently discontinued on August 27, 1956. In the last decade of the twentieth century, various initiatives for the development of the historical route have been proposed. For this reason, it has been outlined a strategy to encourage the development of a new tourist infrastructure between the coast and the Apennines, which it focuses, in the first phase, on the analysis of the actual state for the preservation of the railway artifacts along the route. The reuse of these architectures is set up as a real landscape restoration, with the revival of the railway line, for create other different itineraries, ecologically compatible, while also providing a re-functioning of architectural works, as a touristic sites and hub of interchange toward other interesting historical, artistic or natural sites.