Augusta airship hangar
Pequod76 - CC3.0
The airship hangar in Augusta is an engineering work of great historical and technical value. It represents the first example of military architecture in Italy and imposes itself as a futuristic engineering work for the first years of the 20th century.
The structure was built at the behest of the Royal Navy based on a project by the engineer Antonio Garboli. The construction was born with the intention of defending the harbor of Augusta from the action of U-boat submarines, in the context of the First World War. It was begun in November 1917 and completed three years later, when the war was long over. However, after the war, the structure housed airships used for training and reconnaissance purposes until the area was converted into a seaplane base and the stretch of water in front of it was used for the take-off and landing of seaplanes. The Royal seaplane base of Augusta was named after Luigi Spagnolo, pilot pilot and silver medal for military valor in memory. During the Second World War, the city of Augusta and the seaplane base area were bombed by Allied raids. After the Allied landing in Sicily in July 1943, the airport became the headquarters of the Royal Air Force until 1946. From that date until 1950 it was used by the Royal Air Force as a civilian airport. Since then the structure remained unused for many years. The base was decommissioned in 1991, and today it is included in a park, a hill of eucalyptus trees of almost 30 hectares, which houses the hangar.
