Riva Railway Station Demolition and Future Development Plans
History and Demolition of the Station and Warehouses
Can you imagine the steam train, tired and puffing, arriving at the lakeside at the old station? The younger generations might not even know that Riva once had a railway station.
The train would reach the lake after descending the “Maza,” stopping at Arco, and crossing the entire plain between the two towns. Few remember the MAR railway (an abbreviation for Mori-Arco-Riva), yet nowadays the railway connection with Rovereto and the Adige valley would be useful, necessary, and current.
There are also those who periodically propose its revival. The route wouldn’t change significantly; only the terminology would. The term “train” no longer appeals; it’s better to call it a “surface metro.”
Demolition of the Warehouses and Future Projects
Yesterday, at the municipio, Mayor Cesare Malossini signed the ordinance authorizing the demolition of what little remained of the MAR. We will realize the presence of the two large service warehouses at the old station only when they are demolished.
They are now located at the edge of the villas on Viale Carducci and the Palameeting tent, serving as unnecessary clutter in a parking lot that will need to expand. They have no historical significance, no particular architectural value, yet for their demolition, the mayor had to request approval from Beni Culturali.
Caterpillars will move in over the next few days, followed by some asphalt and blue lines, creating 60 parking spaces just steps from the lake, in a strategic location. Soon, the warehouses will be forgotten: “The State transferred their ownership first to the Provincia and now to the comune,” explained the mayor yesterday. “Now that they’re ours, we can even demolish them.”
They were ugly, basically useless, and easily accessible to questionable activities. This societal decay, as well as architectural neglect, is shared with another building sacrificed to the city’s parking needs: the former Itc on Viale Filati. Thousands of future accountants studied there, today over forty. Some of them are gathering material (mainly photographs) to remember the history and the end of the former accounting school.
