cassiodor.com

Tarquinia and its modern ruins: Polveriera di Montecatini in Marta Valley

Even though much is known about Etruscan and Roman Tarquinia, some of the ruins close to the city remain a secret.

The remnants of a factory behind barbed wires in Marta Valley ar. 500m north of Tarquinia are fascinating to look at and still mysterious. What happened there? I found info in a book. Not much, but still...
This is the book: Giovanni Tonicchi: Tarquinia miles, i cittadini tarquiniesi alle armi e la presenza militare nel territorio nel ventesimo secole. Tarquinia 2006, 4°, softcover, 221 pages, title-page missing, bit worn, else fine.

Page 112 brings information about the vast deserted military area, today known as „Polveriera“ : The industrial complex was built in the 1930s by „S.A.I. Ferrobeton Dinamite Nobel“, which was part of „Società Montecatini“. Montecatini was the most important chemical company in fascist Italy.
Tarquinia’s Marta Valley factory was built to produce gunpowder, explosives and ammunition. It seems that production never started. „Con lo scoppio della Guerra il progetto non trovo realizzazione venende abandonato.“ When the German occupated Italy in 1943 they declared the Marta Valley a „Zona Militare“ and permitted entry (page 157). If they used the area for military purposes is not clear. Around the 7th of June 1944 the Allied Forces conquered Tarquinia. RAF’s 272th Squadron took the Montecatini factory (page 163). After 1945 it belonged to the Italian Army and was used to store weapons and explosives. Sometime after 2010 it was given to Regione Lazio.

(c) Ingo Hugger  2020 | livre@cassiodor.com