'Opens the gateway to the sun to Europe': this was the headline of the daily newspaper L'Adige on 3 February 1963, telling readers about the imminent start of construction of the Brenner motorway. The great infrastructure, after only ten years of work, would open in 1974, when the 314 kilometres from the Brenner Pass to Modena would be fully passable. The A22 was born. In addition to its role as a bridge between Mitteleuropa and the Mediterranean on the North-South axis, the road project represented a real growth engine for Trentino and South Tyrol: the condition that allowed the Atesino territory to develop in the years that followed. Fifty years after those events - the last section of the A22 opened to traffic on 11 April 1974 - 70 million vehicles a year now travel on the Brenner-Modena. With a 5% share of the Italian motorway network, more than 10% of the national import-export trade is concentrated on the Autobrennero.
To mark the anniversary, the Fondazione Museo storico del Trentino and Autostrada del Brennero Spa are promoting at Le Gallerie a major exhibition on "La Via del Brennero", a reflection on the significance of the motorway in Trentino and South Tyrol in the broader cultural context that sees the Brenner Pass at the centre of a thousand-year history. The exhibition is realised in collaboration with the Fondazione Ing. Lino Gentilini. The initiative, proposed for the fiftieth anniversary of the A22, also commemorates the fiftieth anniversary of the opening to traffic of the two road tunnels of the Trento by-pass - where the exhibition is set up - converted in 2008 into the Le Gallerie exhibition space, curated by the Fondazione Museo storico del Trentino.
Publication date: 11/04/2024
