The former Fiat assembly plant at Termini Imerese on the Sicilian coast has sat abandoned for 13 years. The plant was once responsible for delightful models like the 500, Panda, and Punto, but was shut down in 2011 in response to the global economic recession and slowing Fiat/Lancia sales. The unnamed urban explorer from the YouTube channel Forgotten Buildings snuck in to get a look at things inside, and took all of us along for the ride.
The inside of this building may as well be a time capsule of a 2011 Italy. The place is eerily quiet, the offices are littered with company ephemera, and there is dust everywhere, but it looks like everyone just put down their tools for lunch and walked out an hour ago. If it weren’t for the fact that there are zero brand new Fiats being built on the assembly lines, or Macbook Pros on their desks, you could be forgiven for thinking this is a still-operational facility that needs a little cleaning.
While the building is guarded by security, the explorer didn’t seem to have too much trouble sneaking in to the giant plant. Just a few minutes of watching from the edges of the facility shows there aren’t roving guards, so he walks right in an open door. There’s a nerve-wracking bit of the film where guards are clearly going around opening doors looking for something or someone, but he manages to evade their eye and sneak back out again at the end. I’m thousands of miles from Italy, but it still made my heart pound a bit harder.
This is a really cool look at the surreal emptiness of a giant world automotive power’s former assembly line. And it’s one that we probably won’t get an opportunity to see again.
The factory was sold off to a company called Blutec that got lots of government funding to build EVs there, but the people in charge absconded with the cash with a flourish of fraud. All these years later, the factory has changed hands again, this time, however, it’s been scheduled for demolition. The land isn’t doing anyone any good as an empty factory.