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Roma Termini railway station

Roma Termini (in Italian, Stazione Termini or Stazione di Roma Termini) is the main train station of Rome. It is named after the ancient Baths of Diocletian (in Latin, thermae), which lie across the street from the main entrance.

The station has regular train services to all major Italian cities as well as daily international services to Paris, Munich, Genève and Basel. With its 29 platforms and over 150 million passengers each year, Roma Termini is one of the largest train stations in Europe.

Termini is also the main hub for public transport inside Rome. Both current Rome Metro lines (A and B) intersect at Termini, and a major bus station is located at Piazza Cinquecento, the square in front of the station. However, the main tram lines of the city cross at Porta Maggiore, some 500 metres east of the station.

On 23 December 2006, the station was dedicated to Pope John Paul II, more or less like Rome's main airport at Fiumicino is dedicated to Leonardo da Vinci.

History

On February 25, 1863, Pope Pius IX opened the first, temporary Termini Station as the terminus of the lines Rome-Frascati, Rome-Civitavecchia and Rome-Ceprano. The first two lines previously had separate stations elsewhere in the city, and as the third line was under development, the city chose to build one central station, as opposed to the Paris model of having separate terminus stations for each line or each direction. The dilapidated Villa Montalto-Peretti was chosen as the site for this new station, which was to be called the "Stazione Centrale delle Ferrovie Romane" (Central Station of Roman Railways). Construction of the permament station began in 1868, and was completed in 1874. It was laid out according to a plan by the architect Salvatore Bianchi. The front of this station reached Via Cavour, which means it stuck some 200 metres deeper into the city than the current station. In 1937 it was decided to replace the old station, as part of the planning for the 1942 World's Fair, which was never held because of the outbreak of World War II. The old station was demolished, and part of the new station was constructed, but works were halted in 1943 as the Italian fascist government collapsed. The 2-kilometre long side structures of the design by Angiolo Mazzoni del Grande are still part of the current-day station.

Current building

The current building was designed by the two teams that won a competition in 1947: Leo Calini and Eugenio Montuori; Massimo Castellazzi, Vasco Fadigati, Achille Pintonello and Annibale Vitellozzi. It was inaugurated in 1950. The building is characterized by the extremely long, modernist façade in travertine and by the gravity-defying double curve of the cantilever roof in reinforced concrete. Because of these, it carries the nickname the Dinosaur.