Aosta · Italy

Piazza della Repubblica

Here the Roman city concluded long ago and the nineteenth- and twentieth-century one begins: the station not far off, broad avenues, apartment blocks. It is the part of Aosta nobody photographs, and it is the part that altered the inhabitants' lives most. With the railway, which arrived in 1886, the valley ceased to be a difficult crossing and became a destination: tourists, steelworks, employment, people arriving from outside. The Roman stones allowed themselves to be admired. These blocks put food on the table.

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When did the railway arrive?

The line reached Aosta in 1886, connecting the valley to the national network and changing the local economy within a few years.

What about the steelworks?

The steel plant founded in the early twentieth century, for decades the city’s biggest employer. It brought thousands of families here.

Why tell this?

Because a city is not only its monuments. People living in Aosta today descend more often from this history than from the Roman one.

Where it is

Piazza della Repubblica, 11100 Aosta · 45.73525, 7.31383 · Open in Maps

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