The "energy heart" of the old port of Trieste was the hydrodynamic power station (with hydraulic system) which has recently been restored. Built between 1887 and 1890, it was closed, after almost a century of activity, in 1988.
Trieste, with Hamburg, Buenos Aires, Calcutta and Genoa, was one of the first ports in the world to be equipped with a hydrodynamic power plant. Pressure distributed water produced by the power station throughout the port along 6,500m of underground pipes, feeding the quay cranes, warehouse cranes and goods lifts.
The hydrodynamic power plant consists of various elements: 2 towers for the hydraulic accumulators, which served to keep the pressure in the water that powered the cranes and hoists constant at 54 atmospheres; the engine room building; the boiler rooms; a 40m high chimney, the exit for the combustion fumes of the coal burnt in the boilers; a coal depot; a repair shop. The complex occupies an area of approximately 2,000 m2.
The façade is simple and classical, topped by gables at the ends; the building - massive, solid and functional, and embellished with measured decorations - belongs to the trend of “eclecticism”, in the more sober variant used in industrial architecture. During the recent restoration, the building, originally white, was painted in "Austria yellow", almost a tribute to the Habsburg origins of the Old Port. Today the structure is a museum.
Friuli Venezia Giulia Film Commission
Piazza Duca degli Abruzzi 3 — 34132 Trieste
Phone: +39 040 3720142
Email: info@fvgfilmcommission.com
