From Alban Kraja: A Morning from Semmering Station, Austria
 |
Good morning to all from Semmering station in Lower Austria, the location of Europe’s first mountain railway: the Semmering Railway. Designed and constructed in 1854, this engineering marvel was the work of an Albanian engineer, Karl Gega (Carlo Ghega), honored by the Austrians with the noble title Carl Ritter (Knight) von Ghega.
We are here today to admire this engineering masterpiece by Karl Gega, which remains awe-inspiring and iconic in its design. Recognizing its significance, UNESCO placed the Semmering Railway on the World Heritage List in 1998, making it the world’s first railway to receive this honor. From an engineering perspective, it was a flawless creation: 16 viaducts (some in double arches), 15 tunnels (the longest stretching 1,430 meters), and breathtaking slopes. This marvel captivated the world then and continues to inspire admiration today.
But who was Karl Gega? This brilliant engineer, born in Venice in 1802, was the son of Antonio Gega, a wealthy Venetian-Albanian nobleman from the prominent Albanian community in Venice at the time. Antonio’s origins were in Shkodër, in northern Albania, and he had served as a high-ranking naval officer for the Venetian Republic. Karl received an exceptional education in the best schools of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. A genius in mathematics, he was fluent in Italian, German, French, and English. At home, he communicated with his family strictly in Albanian and had attended the Albanian Academy in Venice, the city’s first foreign-language school founded in the 15th century.
Karl Gega designed and built roads, bridges, and railways across much of Europe, including projects like the Rabensburg-Brno, Brno-Prague, Val Sugana, Val d'Adige, Vienna-Trieste, Lombardy-Venetia network, Apennine Railway, Ljubljana-Trieste, Prague-Saxony, Innsbruck-Bavaria, and the Silesian, Moravian, and Transylvanian railways. In northern Italy, his signature is found on major public works, including the Court of Treviso, and many projects in Trieste, Venice, Conegliano, Cortina d'Ampezzo, and on hydraulic works on the Po River.
 |
| Carl Ritter von Ghega's portrait on an old Austrian banknote |
Gega was also the founder and first leader of Italy’s State Railways, Ferrovie dello Stato, established in 1842.
In autumn 1849, Carlo Gega was preparing to launch his most ambitious project, the Trans-Adriatic Railway, which would start in Trieste and reach Shkodër, his ancestral city and a major trading hub in the Balkans at that time. Unfortunately, Gega contracted tuberculosis and passed away at 58 in 1860, leaving a legacy of completed and visionary unfinished projects.
In Austria, Karl Gega is revered. Streets, railways, buildings, bridges, parks, monuments, and museums bear his name. His image was on Austria’s 20-shilling coin before the euro in 1966, and a commemorative stamp was issued in 2012. He is laid to rest in the Crypt of Honor at Vienna’s Central Cemetery, alongside Austria’s heroes. Sadly, in Italy and Albania, there are only a few streets in his honor—a modest tribute to a visionary genius celebrated as a near-saint here in Austria.
 |
| Varri and Karl Gega (Carlo Ghega), Central Cemetery (Zentralfriedhof), Vienna |
This has been a brief history of an extraordinary individual, a brilliant Albanian engineer who shaped European and world railway history in the 19th century.
From Austria, I, Alban Kraja, send my warm regards and best wishes to all.