Nuovo Cinema Paradiso railway station demolished in Sicily

The Lascari-Gratteri railway station, a key filming location for Giuseppe Tornatore's 1988 Oscar-winning film Nuovo Cinema Paradiso, has been demolished. The station, which opened in 1887 as part of the Palermo-Messina railway line, was destroyed on the night of February 21-22, 2017, to make way for a double track on the Fiumetorto-Castelbuono line. The decision to demolish was made in 2003, and no alternative preservation solution was implemented. The station was where the protagonist Totò (played by Salvatore Cascio) bids farewell to his friend Alfredo before leaving for Rome. Cascio, now 37, commented: 'It's a bit like the demolition of the cinema in Tornatore's film. The end of a dream.' The demolition has sparked criticism over the loss of a cultural landmark that could have been repurposed as a museum or archive dedicated to the film.