Sasso Mobile

After the presentation of many projects for a railway line that could link Bologna and Northern Italy with Tuscany, the one by J. L. Protche was chosen and work began during Papal rule and ended during the early years of the unification of Italy. The “Porrettana\" line was inaugurated on the 3rd of November 1864, but the stretch from Bologna to Vergato was finished two years earlier (1862) and the one from Vergato to Porretta the following year (1863). The work, which included 47 tunnels and 35 bridges and viaducts, for a total length of 99 km, posed many dangers to the workers who were insured thanks to an agreement that required them to be looked after and which established that in the event of death their widows would receive compensation that was equivalent to six months of the worker’s salary.