"G. Marconi" Airport, Bologna
Marconi Business Lounge (airport first floor)

MARCONI AIRPORT CELEBRATES G. MARCONI NOBEL PRIZE CENTENARY

On the centenary of Guglielmo Marconi Nobel Prize for Physics, Bologna’s Airport brings to new light the bronze statue which has been portraying the Bolognese scientist since the beginning of the Eighties.

The statue was carved by the sculptor Marco Marchesini and donated to the airport managing company by the Bologna Rhine Valley Lions Club. In the latest years it was moved many times to allow the airport reorganize its spaces and operations, now the statue has been located in a very busy and central spot, the circular area at the entrance of the Marconi Business Lounge.

Besides the sculpture, the airport houses a small temporary exhibition, organised with the Marconi Foundation, which shows through pictures and documents of the time the strong bonds between Marconi and the city of Bologna and the airport’s world. Three panels are devoted to the scientist and inventor of the wireless data transmission system, which is now best known as “wireless”. They depict the young Bolognese’s discoveries at Villa Griffone, his first international success and “a name’s destiny”, that is the reasons behind the airport naming after Guglielmo Marconi.

The statue’s new location and the exhibition were officially presented on July 15^th 2009 by Mrs Giuseppina Gualtieri, President of Bologna’s Airport, Mr Gabriele Falciasecca, President of Marconi Foundation, and Mr Bruno Filetti, President of the Chamber of Commerce, who took the occasion to reward Prof. Ernesto Stagni with a commemorative plaque. Mr Stagni, whose passion and strategic vision were fundamental to the airport development, was president of the Chamber of Commerce and of the Airport, and to him is due the airport naming after Guglielmo Marconi.