Escalators of Potenza

The city of Potenza, capital of the region of Basilicata in Southern Italy, has a peculiar urban structure, with the old town being on the highest relief and the surrounding neighborhoods being at gradually lower altitudes. For this reason the city is full of ancient and modern stairways, and is also known as the “city of a hundred stairs” (“città delle cento scale”). It has also seen the creation of a number of monumental escalators.

Today, Potenza houses one of the longest systems of mechanized escalators in Europe, with a total length of 1.3 kilometers (0.8 miles). The system is composed of three separate escalators. The first escalator, known as Scale Mobili di Viale Marconi, was constructed in 1994 and connects the lower part of the city to the historical center, has three intermediate stops and is 430 meters (1,400 feet) long. The second one, Scale Mobili di Via Armellini, was inaugurated in 2008 and it’s made up of two separate escalators and two elevators.

The most recent, and longest, escalator was built in 2010 and it is called Scale Mobili di Santa Lucia. It is composed of two elevators with a total length of 600 meters (2,000 feet) connected by a covered pedestrian bridge called Ponte Attrezzato. This last escalator is also flanked by two inclined elevators. 

Getting up a hill has rarely been so impressive.