01 - The Railway
When you reach Fermignano, first of all you will find the railway station that is not used nowadays. The castle of Fermignano didn’t include the railway, which arrived at the end of the 19th century together with a lot of other innovations as the symbol of the technological, commercial and economic development.
Fermignano has been one of the first towns having a railway station which was also illuminated, together with the boulevard that even today brings you to the main square, thanks to the engineer Falasconi who took advantage of the waters of the Metauro river to build a mill in 1897, obtaining energy for the public and work illumination.
The works for the construction of the Fabriano – Urbino railway started in 1895 as well as the works for the station which was inaugurated on the 20th of September 1898. The Fano – Fossombrone railway was inaugurated in 1915 and the train arrived in Fermignano in November 1916.
Today the railway of Fermignano doesn’t work anymore, it is an empty and surreal place. The tracks pass through the first inhabited area but they are not in operation. There is a commercial exercise in the square in front of the railway, but the space behind is fixed in a distant place. There is no more the eco of the movement. When the railway was built indeed, it represented a great opportunity of progress and economic development for the trades, the movements and Fermignano became one of the most important centers in the Marche region.
The local women tell us that the passage of trains was a very significant moment during the daily life of their childhood. There was a train in the morning which indicated the time for school, there was another one that indicated the delay in leaving the house and that created anxiety and confusion. The whistle of the train indicated the arrival of goods and people. It made you imagine a movement from and to the town which was the only one at that time. Then cars arrived and everything changed. During the last years of the 19th century Fermignano changed completely its face. The companies developed, the doors of the old castle were broken down and the tower with the clock together with the seven alleys and the three squares are now difficult to spot.