The Dawn of the Autostrada del Sole
From 4 December 2024 to 28 February 2025
The history of the Autostrada del Sole is presented in the exhibition spaces of the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea—an extraordinary undertaking and engineering triumph that brought Italy together. A collaboration between the Ministero della Cultura and Archivio Storico Luce Cinecittà, featuring photographs by Luca Campigotto, Silvia Camporesi and Barbara Cannizzaro.
The Autostrada del Sole represents far more than an infrastructure project: it is an epic story that helped shape Italy’s future. The Ministero della Cultura, Archivio Storico Luce Cinecittà and photographers Luca Campigotto, Silvia Camporesi and Barbara Cannizzaro present a journey inviting visitors to rediscover the places and the road that have become part of Italians’ collective memory and present-day experience, as well as an undertaking that represents the link between North and South, sixty years after its inauguration. An infrastructure that pushed the boundaries of engineering, with 113 bridges, 38 tunnels and pioneering design solutions by leading figures such as Riccardo Morandi and Giorgio Macchi.
The exhibition, presented at the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea from 4 December to 28 February 2025, traces the history of the Autostrada del Sole, from the laying of the foundation stone in 1956 to its inauguration in 1964, through photographs by Luca Campigotto, Silvia Camporesi and Barbara Cannizzaro, in dialogue with historical images from the Archivio Luce. Curated by the Ministero della Cultura and Cinecittà, the exhibition highlights the exceptional collaboration between the public and private sectors, workers and managers, and explores the fundamental role played by four of the leading Italian companies of the period: Agip, Fiat, Italcementi and Pirelli.
Completed in just eight years, ahead of schedule, the project bears witness to the engineering, economic and organisational challenges that were successfully confronted and overcome. The journey began on 19 May 1956 in San Donato Milanese, in the presence of President of the Republic Giovanni Gronchi, and concluded on 4 October 1964 in Florence, with the inauguration presided over by Prime Minister Aldo Moro.
This visual journey also reveals the cultural and social transformations associated with the Autostrada del Sole, focusing on films, essays and articles that explored its impact. Masterpieces such as Ieri, oggi, domani by Vittorio De Sica, which won an Academy Award, and documentaries such as Viadotto sull’Aglio by Carlo Nebiolo testify to how this arterial road became a symbol of Italian modernity.
Visitors can immerse themselves in this fascinating chapter of Italy’s history through period materials preserved in the Archivio Storico Luce. Highlights of the exhibition include architectural developments inspired by the motorway, such as the first “bridge” service station designed by Angelo Bianchetti and Giovanni Michelucci’s celebrated Autostrada Church, a masterpiece that interprets mobility as a metaphor for encounter.
An exhibition that tells the story not only of an engineering feat, but of a crucial turning point in the country’s development, bringing together memory and innovation in a journey that helped define an era.