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Memorie del buio Paolo Forti
Advertising Posters In the early twentieth century, the tourism sector started to expand rapidly, although it would still be some time before it would become a mass industry. Private vehicles were still thin on the ground and, as such, the railways – which had been developed very extensively in the late nineteenth century – played a crucial role in allowing tourists to reach the destinations they wanted to visit. At the beginning of the twentieth century – thanks in part to the parallel development of billboards, which were often created by famous painters – the state railways in many countries produced posters of the main caves
that tourists could reach by train. Today, these floral- or Deco-style posters are much sought-after, achieving eye-watering prices at international auctions. Fortunately, the “Franco Anelli” Centre for Speleological Documentation has a substantial collection of them, including this poster advertising the Han and Rochefort caves in Belgium.
