Ex Colonia Reggiana (Amos Maramotti)
Built in just three months in 1934, a seaside colony turned diagonally to the coast so every dormitory could follow the sun.
At a glance
On Viale Gabriele D’Annunzio in Riccione, the ex Colonia Reggiana — originally named after Amos Maramotti — stands as one of the most rigorously rationalist of the Adriatic colonies. The engineer Costantino Costantini raised it in 1934 in only three months, arranging three staggered blocks on the diagonal so that their long facades would catch the sun on the heliothermic axis prescribed by the era’s hygiene codes. The result is serial, nautical, and unmistakably modern.
Key facts
- Built: 1934, in just three months
- Engineer: Costantino Costantini
- Original name: Colonia Marina “Amos Maramotti”
- Layout: three staggered blocks set diagonally to the coast
- Orientation: long facades aligned to the heliothermic (sun) axis
- Height: three-storey dormitory pavilions with sea-facing balconies
- Detail: nautical porthole windows for service rooms
History
The colony was one of dozens that turned the Romagna coast into a vast machine of supervised childhood in the 1930s. Funded from Reggio Emilia and named for Amos Maramotti, it was designed to take in pale, undernourished children for weeks of sun, salt and routine on the Adriatic.
Costantini’s achievement was as much logistical as architectural: the complex went up in three months in 1934. Speed did not flatten the design. The plan obeyed the hygienic doctrine of the day, which held that dormitories should be oriented to the sun along a precise heliothermic axis — and the building’s whole geometry follows from that single rule.
Like its neighbours along the coast, the Reggiana eventually outlived the system that built it and slid into disuse, where it remains a listed testimony to a particular idea of health and architecture.
What you see
Three building bodies, staggered and set diagonally to the shoreline, give the colony its restless plan. The major facades face east and west along the heliothermic axis, and the two dormitory pavilions open in wide horizontal window bands that announce the great communal rooms behind them, each fronted by a balcony toward the sea. Two corridors and three semicircular, projecting stair towers stitch the blocks together and carry the vertical movement.
One element breaks the strict stereometry: a curved stair volume that bulges out of the rigid prisms, the building’s single gesture of release. Look closer and the language turns maritime — round porthole openings light the service rooms, and the southern entrance block, which holds the refectory and frames the garden, is the only part allowed a different form.
Practical information
- Access: the complex is disused — view from Viale Gabriele D’Annunzio.
- Best light: the east and west facades reward early morning and late afternoon respectively.
- Time needed: 15–20 minutes as a stop on a Riccione colony itinerary.
- Note: the building is protected and not open — observe from the street.
Getting there
The colony sits on Viale Gabriele D’Annunzio in the northern part of Riccione, near the coast in the province of Rimini. Riccione’s railway station is a short distance inland, and Rimini and its airport are a few kilometres up the coast. The seafront and its bus lines run close by in season.
Nearby
- The marine colonies of the Romagna coast — Riccione, Rimini, Cesenatico, Cervia — a rationalist itinerary in the making.
- Riccione seafront and the Viale Ceccarini promenade.
Sources
- Ministero della Cultura — DGABAP, Beni culturali abbandonati: Colonia Marina Reggiana.
- Address per DGABAP record: Viale Gabriele D’Annunzio, Riccione.
- Coordinates approximate (street level): 44.0234, 12.6319 — pending exact confirmation.