The Seaside Hostel of Marina di Ravenna
Moving towards the Adriatic Sea from Ravenna, the sea suddenly appears behind a light drape of trees, and stretches vast and peaceful: the hostel shows up silent and impenetrable, by approaching it becomes taller and larger, it comes alive and thriving as because of unexpected and unpredicted buds
Fidia Gambetti, 1934
The Residence Villa Marina, once the seaside hostel of Marina di Ravenna
On the left: photo from the the UDI Photo Archive of Ravenna, Infanzia e solidarietà, Colonie estive, UDI-RA-3-461
Mappa_Remember
In december 1931 the municipality of Ravenna purchases a 25 acres plot of wooded land, due to a legislative decree which allowed to sell lands of the State-owned forests in order to promote tourism.
Part of these plots is used in order to host the new seaside highway connecting Marina di Ravenna to Punta Marina.
The remaining area is reserved to the building developement of Marina di Ravenna.
In order o replace the obsolete hostel for weak or affected by scrofula children in Via Vecchi, it was decided to purchase another plot of the pinewood.
The CMC of Ravenna will eventually build in less than six months (from 16 January to 7 July 1934) on this space on a project by architect Giovanni Montanari an imposing four-storey building, which fused XXth century features and elements from the rationalist movement.
Built on four floors, the hostel is characterized by a peculiar entrance, lined by two columns, with a broken fronton and a big arched window with exposed keystones.
On the other hand, the windows of the dormitories, elongated and narrow, directly recall the solutions of the industrial architecture of the twenties.
Blueprint of the sea hostel.
The building is carachterize by not being perfectly rectangular: the fact that one side is considerably broader, with rounded balconies which remind the shape of a stern, while the other narrows until it assumes the shape of a bow, attest the impression that the design was meant to give.
The large hostel, which could host up to 650 children plus the personnel, is commissioned by the anti-tubercolosis association of the province, which will entrust the building to the Federazione dei fasci di combattimento of Ravenna.
Photo from the the UDI Photo Archive of Ravenna, Infanzia e solidarietà, Colonie estive, UDI-RA-3-462
Following World War II, all the properties of the Fascist Party became state property, and the hostel is assigned to the Italian Red Cross, which will exploit it for a few months in order to host refugees from Istria before eventually using the vast structure in order to host children again in summer.
Photo from the the UDI Photo Archive of Ravenna, Infanzia e solidarietà, Colonie estive, UDI-RA-3-474
Photo from the the UDI Photo Archive of Ravenna, Infanzia e solidarietà, Colonie estive, UDI-RA-3-535
In the early 2000 the Giacobazzi society fro Modena purchases from the city of Ravenna the right to restore the building in order to convert it in a residence and build a resort in the tract of free beach in front of the hostel.
The strong oppositions from environmental organizations in defense of the characteristic sand dunes, preserved also thanks to the absence of beach resorts, led to a change of heart from the local administration.
Following a long court case, the opening of the “Villa Marina” residence was permitted, although the structure was not allowed to extend to the nearby beach.
