Inaugurated in 1867 by Pope Pius IX, the new station was built according to a project of architect salvatore Bianchi; ... The original plans resisted until 1938, more or less unvaried over time, despite subsequent rearrangements... It was only on 1938 that the station was actually refurbished, according to a project by architect Angiolo Mazzoni... In 1941 the war interrupped the works... The next competition published in 1947 was won with equal merit by two groups ... featured a reduction to a minimum of the wall structures and great trasparency given by the coverage of the entrance cantilever roof and of the hall ("dinosaur") and the leading gallery (rubber-covered). The current architectural recovery project tends to give back a dignity to the interiors designed, in successive phases, by architects Mazzoni and Montuori... The new philosophy of intervention re-positions the station both as a "travel place" and as a transit meeting centre. ... A new service centre has been set up 4 metres down the basement, the Forum Termini... the large bookshop, made from transparent glass, welcomes travellers in the entrance hall and descends downwards to the Forum... The lighting follows the most general architecture project and tends to free volumes from any added weight and to recreate, by using the most advanced light sources and fittings, the type of lighting conceived by the architects Mazzoni and Montuori. (FLARE 23, 2000, pp. 4-12).