Lecce: “the tram of the sea” the photographic exhibition on the Lecce – San Cataldo electric tramway (1898-1933)

Lecce: “the tram of the sea” the photographic exhibition on the Lecce – San Cataldo electric tramway (1898-1933).

The Ionico Salentina Amici Ferrovie Association (AISAF), manager of the Puglia Railway Museum, on the occasion of the 125th anniversary of the electric tramway Lecce-San Cataldo, repeats la historical-photographic part of show and the related catalog organized in 1998 and edited by prof. Carmelo Pasimeni of the University of Salento.

The electric tramway was inaugurated on 25 June 1898, as part of a series of inaugural celebrations of important public works carried out by the municipal administration, then led by the mayor Giuseppe Pellegrino. It was undoubtedly the flagship of the Pellegrino administration. He created an old and never forgotten one aspiration of public administrators, landowners, traders and ordinary citizens to have a connection with the sea. He thus became the assumption is preferably used for reactivation of the San Cataldo anchorage, where the ancient Hadrian port stood and to start the rehabilitation of the neighboring marshy areas, infested by malaria. Furthermore, the city was equipped with electric lighting.

La electric tramway was built by Pasquale Ruggieri company of Lecce in partnership with the German company Artur Koppel from Berlin, which had orders all over the world. During its activity, the electric tramway was managed by the “Società Ruggeri & Koppel”. With its 12,7 km in length it was the longest electric tramway in Italy and the first in the South. The same year as the inauguration fu presented at the Turin Exhibition. It had the warehouse and the control center adjacent to the power plant (now Viale Michele De Pietro), where it is still possible to see the faded signs. The tram line it started from Piazza S. Oronzo, ran alongside the liberty canopy of the covered herb market, also a work by Ruggeri and inaugurated in those same days, was heading towards the municipal villa and continued on street of the sea, towards San Cataldo.

Il rolling stock had been built in Germany. The cars, painted in yellow and red, were very elegant and illuminated with incandescent lamps. The service was carried out by four trains, at intervals of 45 minutes each.

In his 35 years of operation, the Lecce-San Cataldo electric tramway it satisfied the bathing needs of the people of Lecce, however failing to meet the conditions for which it was built. After various corporate and operational vicissitudes, and with the advent of road transport, the electric tramway was definitively closed at the end of the 1932 bathing season and dismantled the following year.

La show, included in the normal visit itinerary of the Railway Museum, could be visited during opening hours (Saturday and Sunday, from 9.00 to 12.00 and from 17.00 to 20.00). It will be on display until December 2023. Info 335 6397167.