Erzelli – Wikipedia

Erzelli It is a hill in Genoa in the Cornigliano district ^[first] , located on the Cornigliano hill. It is also the name by which we usually refer to the Technological Scientific Park “Great Campus” , under construction in the same area. ^[2]

The toponym is believed to derive from the Ligurian term ERXI (with the “X” pronounced as the French “J”, which means “holm oaks”, particular trees similar to the oaks that are found on the hill. For this reason, speaking of the hill, the Genoese refer “Ai Erzelli” , rather than “ad Erzelli” , as one would say if the name was singular.

In this location there are currently no, as there were no significant housing settlements in the past.

Once upon a time the toponym “Erzelli” indicated the whole area that came from Monte Croce to the short stretch of sea between Cornigliano and Sestri Ponente, clipped and barren, called “the desert” where, on an islet near the beach stood, it seems like From the seventh century, a small convent.

In this site, meanwhile combined with the mainland for the accumulation of debris transported by the streams, and dominated by a fort built in the seventeenth century by the Republic of Genoa, the entrepreneur Edilio Raggio built the palace known as Castello Raggio in the nineteenth century, disappeared in the last post -war period with the interraction of that stretch of sea to build industrial settlements.

Today, with the term Erzelli, the esplanade of 44 hectares (110 acres) is identified, derived from the baking of the hill of Monte Croce, carried out, starting from the thirties and continued until the early sixties, for the filling at sea, first, Dell The area on which the Ilva – Italsider steel plant was arose and then that of the Genoa airport.

The area can be directly reachable with a road that starts from the Genova-Genoa-Savona airport recently adapted to urban traffic and the travel of public transport (2012) to make access to the esplanade easier and less steep; Until 2009, most of it has been used for more than twenty years as an empty container deposit.

The area is located near important infrastructure connections:

At the feet Collina degli Erzelli is the ancient Badia di Sant’Andrea, founded in 1100 by the Cistercian monks, now deconsecrated, where until the early seventies on Sunday morning the Latin mass was celebrated by the Benedictine monks.

Fortifications [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

In the Erzelli area, some of the latest external fortifications of the defensive structure of Genoa were built in the nineteenth century.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, due to the changed European political situation, the conditions for which they had been built, were used as ammunition deposits and later, during the Second World War, as anti -aircraft stations.

These fortifications, called Forte Casale Erselli , Forte di Monte Croce It is Fort of Monte Guano , the hills between Cornigliano, Sestri Ponente and Borzoli presided over, with the aim of protecting the nascent industrial areas of Cornigliano and Sestri Ponente from possible enemy attacks.

These structures, unlike the forts that preside over the heights of Genoa between Valpolcevera and Val Bisagno, were sinking in the profile of the hill to make them less visible. Definitely abandoned by the military state property after the Second World War, they went to a rapid degradation.

Today, for various reasons, the remains of these buildings are scarcely visible.

The ruins of the fort of Monte Guano, located on the homonymous hill behind the current esplanade, are hidden from view by dense vegetation and are not accessible because they are incorporated in areas of private property.

The fort was seriously damaged by an explosion that took place on November 8, 1923, when he had been used as a powder keg. At the foot of the mountain, near the cemetery of Cornigliano, is still located, even if in a bad state of maintenance, the chapel built in memory of the victims of the explosion.

The remains of the Forte Casale Erselli (which took its name from a cottage an existing time in the area) are found on the east side of the esplanade, surrounded by small production settlements and are currently privately owned.

The fort of Monte Croce was instead completely destroyed in 1959 following the breakdown of the entire hill on which it stood. Of this strong they remain only, close to the surrounding wall of the cemetery of Cornigliano, inaccessible and hidden by dense vegetation, the ruins of the room of the guard body, which arose detached from the main building.

Conceived the scientific and technological park in the late 1980s, at least according to the original project, both the offices of numerous high -tech companies, and the workshops of scientific research institutes, as well as the classrooms, offices, and workshops should have contained, at least according to the original project of the engineering faculty of the University of Genoa.
To date, however, albeit the park already guests the offices of multinational companies such as Esaote, Ericsson and Siemens, and some laboratories of the Italian Institute of Technology, the Technological Pole is still far from its completeness, above all due to the repeatedly postponed transfer of the Faculty of Engineering of the Genoese University.
A delay caused by several factors, such as the evident complexity of the transaction of the transfer of the university office from the Albaro district to the Collina degli Erzelli, which therefore provides for the sale of the land and properties of the current location and the acquisition of the new spaces in the technological pole. Second some ^{[ spend? ]} , the delay would also be the fault of the resistance of some professors and administrative employees of the aforementioned university faculty, who would not like to transfer offices and workshops to the new location because they are considered too far from the current one (the two offices are about 9 km away). ^[3]

In addition to the University of Genoa, some companies have also delayed their transfer to the Technological Park, mainly due to the 2007-2008 world economic crisis which has driven them to review the budget initially bordered on the transfer of the locations, but also for the current lack of adequate infrastructure connections to the technological pole.

A project for the realization of a connection with the Genoa railway station Sestri Ponente Airport and the Technological Park has already been financed by the European Commission. ^[4] In 2019 the project was included in the urban plan of mobility of the Municipality of Genoa and involves the connection initially through monorotaia ^[5] , an idea then replaced by the proposal to create an infrastructure for cable car, ^[6] and finally for a funicular. ^[7]

The construction works of the cable car between Genoa airport and the technological scientific park should begin in December 2023 and end in August 2024. ^[8]

The construction of a new airport railway station/Erzelli whose works should also start in January 2022 and end in July 2023. ^{[9] [ten]}

Favorable and against [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

Over the years, they have expressed themselves in favor of the project of the Technological Scientific Park among others: Federico Rampini (Repubblica journalist), Marco Doria (former mayor of Genoa), Raffaella Paita (former councilor for Liguria Region), and Claudio Burlando ( Former President of the Liguria Region), Giovanni Toti (President of the Liguria Region) ^[11] , in addition to the managers Confindustria Genova and obviously to the owners of Genoa High Tech.

Sandro Biasotti (Deputy of Forza Italia) expressed themselves against the project) ^[twelfth] , Maurizio Rossi (senator of civic choice and owner of the Primocanale television station), Pierfranco Pellizzetti (journalist of the newspaper) ^[13] , Susy De Martini (Politics of La Right) ^[14] , and Antonio Gozzi (president of Assoacacciai and Virtus Entella). ^[15]

History [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

The nineties [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

The idea of ​​a series of technological parks in Italy was advanced for the first time in 1989 by Carlo Fracanzani, then Minister of State Participations of the De Mita government. ^[16] The industrial plan initially provided for the creation of a technological park for the areas that had suffered the most de-industrialization in the eighties: Naples, Terni, Taranto and Genoa.

In the following years Terni and the Umbria Region treasured the funds of the plan for the creation of the Technological Park of Umbria Sitech , officially inaugurated in 1994 (which in the meantime has changed its name in Umbria innovation ).
The same happened for Naples: in 1994 it was inaugurated TechNapoli , the Scientific and Technological Park of the Metropolitan Area of ​​Naples and Caserta. ^[17] For Taranto and Puglia, however, things went a little slowly and the inauguration of the Magna Grecia technological scientific center of Taranto took place only in October 2014. ^[18]

2000 – 2011 [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

In the early 2000s, a group of Ligurian entrepreneurs and managers gathered under the Dixet Association ^[19] constitute the company Genova High Tech (GHT) SpA aimed precisely at the realization of the technological pole. ^[20] The company is led by Carlo Castellano, CEO of Esaote Spa, and by Giuseppe “Pino” Rasero, former manager of the Institute for Industrial Reconstruction (IRI). In the company, among others, of Intesa Sanpaolo, Banca Carige, Aurora Costruzioni, Coop Liguria, Prometeo Srl of Giuseppe Rasero, Talea spa and Euromilano spa, the real estate company that designed the Bovisa university campus of the Politecnico di Milano in the Milan in the Milan are present. North area of ​​the Lombard capital. ^[21]

Genoa High Tech and its members choose Erzelli for the construction of the technological park for various reasons. In addition to being a free construction area, it is an area that can be easily reached by train (there are two railway stations nearby: the Genoa Sestri Ponente station and the Genova Cornigliano station), via Autostrada (the area is in fact located Next to the “Genova Airport” toll booth of the A10 Genova-Savona motorway), via air (a few meters from the hill is the Genoa airport “Cristoforo Colombo”).

The green area in the Monte Guano area, between Sestri Ponente and Cornigliano, will host spaces equipped for the game and sport with a 10 km racing track, parking spaces, pedestrian paths and water courses open to the public.
The redevelopment project of the Erzelli hill, with an extension of 440,000 m², is curated by the company Genova High Tech Spa, founded in 2005 by Intesa Sanpaolo, Banca Carige, Euromilano spa and Aurora Costruzioni.

In 2003 Genoa High Tech signed a purchase commitment from the Erzelli area from Aldo Spinelli, then owner of the area he used for the container deposit. In 2006 the sale ended, with the payment of 39 million euros to the former president of Genoa. ^{[20] [22]}

At the beginning, the technological park should have been designed by the famous Genoese architect Renzo Piano, which however then renounced the assignment in 2006, due to some changes in strategy by some new members who entered the consortium. In particular, Renzo Piano disputes the choice of a substantial reduction of the green spaces originally foreseen in the project in favor of residential construction. ^[23] The project was then entrusted to the Milanese architect Mario Bellini. ^[24]

In October 2006, the planning agreement between the Liguria Region, the province of Genoa and the Municipality of Genoa was signed, which approved the urban variant concerning the entire area of ​​Erzelli. ^[25]

On December 4, 2006 the first official agreement between the institutions and the University of Genoa was signed: it is a formal ” Act of intent ” Between Liguria Region and Genoese University to have resources for the Faculty of Engineering in Erzelli. ^[26]

In April 2007 a program agreement was signed between the Municipality of Genoa, the Liguria Region, the University of Genoa and Genoa High Tech which provides for the construction of the technological park with large spaces for high tech companies, as well as the transfer of the engineering faculty of the University of Genoa and some workshops of the CNR, and since April 2009 the construction of the “Leonardo da Vinci” technological park have started.

2012 – 2019 [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

In May 2012 the Genoese headquarters of Ericsson moved to the Erzelli. ^[27]

On July 24, 2012, the board of directors of the Genoese University expressed a negative opinion on the transfer for the faculty of engineering for problems of economic coverage of the operation ^[28] . However, in the following months the negotiations between the Liguria Region, the University of Genoa and Genoa High Tech have been set in motion to improve the conditions for the transfer of the engineering faculty to the hill of the city west.

At the end of July, the formal acceptance by the Academic Senate of the University of Genoa for the transfer of the Faculty of Engineering to Erzelli arrived. ^[29] On July 31, 2013 in Rome, Liguria Region, University of Genoa, Municipality of Genoa, Invitalia National Agency and Ministry of Economic Development have made official and signed the definitive agreement for the green light to the project. ^[30] At the beginning of 2014 Roberto Cingolani, scientific director of the Italian Institute of Technology, confirmed the intention of the scientific research center he directed to open a laboratory dedicated to rehabilitation robotics in the Erzelli park. ^{[thirty first]}

At the end of January 2014, the German multinational Siemens also transferred its Genoese headquarters to the Erzelli technological park. ^[32]

In the following months, the actors involved have undertaken to allow the University of Genoa to buy the land directly where the engineering faculty will have to arise, which in the meantime has changed its name in “Polytechnic school”.
Regarding the project, some university teachers have expressed doubts about the logistics and transport of people from the city center to the park hill. ^[33]

Subsequently, the Faculty Council approves a document to block the transfer of the faculty again to the Technological Pole. ^[34]

In October 2014 Luigi Predeval, new president of Genoa High Tech Spa, announced that the official agreement was signed for the transfer of a Department of Iit (Italian Institute of Technology) to the Technological Polo degli Erzelli. The transfer should involve about a hundred researchers, who will occupy a plan of the building currently inhabited by Siemens. Subsequently, three other three hundred researchers from the Iit should move to the Erzelli, for a total of four hundred people committed and three to four plans of the building in question. ^[35]

In May 2016 the new headquarters of the Esaote biomedical company was inaugurated. ^[36]

In November of the same year, the Technological Scientific Park took on the new name Great Campus (Genoa Research & Advanced Technology Campus) ^[37] , and records the opening of the first scientific research workshops of the technological pole. These are the robotics laboratories of the Italian Institute of Technology. ^[38]

In January 2017, the University of Genoa signed the official document for the purchase of land at the Erzelli by Genoa High Tech, land intended for the allocation of the new engineering faculty. ^[39] With the signature of this agreement, the will of the University of Genoa is definitively established to transfer the Polytechnic school to the Erzelli.

At the end of March 2017, Liguria Digital, an participatory company of the Liguria Region, opened its new headquarters at the Erzelli Scientific Technological Park. ^[40]

In summer 2018 the works of the first phase of the green park with public use, inaugurated in May 2019, began. On 31 October 2018, the University of Genoa signs the agreement for the purchase of land where to build the new faculty of engineering. ^[41]

Companies and entities present in the Technological Park [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

The companies and entities present in the technological pole or about to move are:

• Goffredo Casalis Geographical, historical, statistical and commercial dictionary of the States of S.M. The king of Sardinia , 1849.
• Corinna Praga, Genoa outside the walls , Fratelli Frilli Editori, 2006.
• Stefano Finauri, Strong of Genoa: history, technique and architecture of the defensive forts , Genoa, editorial services editions, 2007, ISBN 978-88-89384-27-5.