Piazza Manzoni – Small Station and September 11 Memorial

Modena small station, very busy area

The old provincial railway station, also known as the small station, was inaugurated in 1932 and was the terminus of the routes that connected Modena with Vignola, Mirandola, Sassuolo and Maranello, exclusively for freight transport; in the early 60s the lines were dismantled and currently only the connection with Sassuolo remains, as passenger transport, with the famous "Gigetto" train.
In the square in front of the station stands the 11 September memorial, inaugurated on 13 September 2003; the work depicting two close but separate globes symbolically interprets the complex relationship with the Islamic world. The central axes of the two worlds are made up of two steel fragments of the supporting structures recovered after the collapse of the Twin Towers and donated by Saima Avandero. The work aims to remember the tragic event that occurred on September 11, 2001, which, in its drama, further distanced different, but not so distant, civilizations and cultures. This distance cannot and must not be definitive: the intersection of the two globes represents, in fact, our hope in building a future of collaboration and peaceful coexistence.