Darsena area

Just behind the railway station there is the Darsena area. In 1737, a navigable canal, the so-called Candiano Canal (the real name is Corsini Canal, or simply Darsena) was built to connect the historic centre of Ravenna to the Adriatic Sea. The area became a highly productive zone, with numerous industrial buildings.
Between the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, the Darsena was the city’s true port and prospered until the 1970s, when it was decided to move the port area, leaving many factories disused.
Today, the Darsena is a lively and beloved place: an open-air museum of industrial archaeology and street art. It is also a place of enjoyment – thanks to cocktail bars and restaurants – and offers a quay for strolling, enhanced by benches, trees and decorative plants. This space is made even more fascinating by lecterns, which bring to mind the city of literary greats such as Dante, Byron, D’Annunzio, Montale, Pasolini and Dario Fo, and by installations of street art and contemporary mosaic monuments. At the head of the quay, on the station side, the Moro di Venezia stands out lightly: is the historic boat of entrepreneur Raul Gardini, in 1992 protagonist of the America’s Cup.