It was Saturday, June 1, 1935, 4:30 p.m., when, in the presence of the brothers Adriano, Bruno and Marcello Ducati and the authorities of the time, the official ceremony that sanctioned the opening of the most important chapter in the history, future and present of the company took place.

The one in Borgo Panigale was in fact not the first home of the former Società Scientifica Radio Brevetti Ducati, founded in 1926. Ducati's first home was a laboratory where no more than 10 workers and a secretary worked, at 9 Via Collegio di Spagna, but already by 1929, the villa owned by the Ducati family, located at 51 Viale Guidotti in Bologna, was enlarged and modified to increase the production that was increasingly in demand.

The three Ducati brothers, Adriano, Bruno and Marcello, were aware of how production was becoming increasingly important and fundamental in a period of great technological developments, which saw Italian excellence leading the way in several fields, including radio transmission. Thanks to the genius of Guglielmo Marconi, radio became a mainstay of Italian technology, and the subsequent experiments carried out by Adriano Ducati confirmed the enormous importance that an entirely new technology covered at the time.

Thus it was that the decision was made to start a new factory in Borgo Panigale. The choice of the area was not accidental, because Ducati rose next to Via Marco Emilio Lepido, the "highway" of the time and an ideal crossroads for receiving raw material and shipping finished products.

At the time, Borgo Panigale was a hamlet of Bologna, surrounded by the countryside, but an ideal environment for the establishment of an industrial plant such as Ducati was at that time; a miniature city, built according to the most modern dictates of the time, equipped with state-of-the-art technology and the best comfort for the workers of that period. More than 1,500 workers settled at the Borgo Panigale site, capable of the most sophisticated production in the fields of optics, radio technology and precision mechanics.

Over the course of the years immediately following, Ducati's history is marked, as with all companies of the time, by the political and production changes that brought Italy into the war, until it became the target of Allied bombing raids, which hit the factory in 1944.

It was out of the rubble of the bombing after the war that Ducati's new era took shape, with the conversion to the engine sector and the start of production of the "Cucciolo" micromotor.

Almost ninety years have passed since that June 1 when the foundation stone, silent witness to Ducati's history, finally sees the light again and returns to the surface with its enormous load of tradition, telling of the deep roots that bind the company to the Borgo Panigale area.

Its rediscovery comes at an important historical moment for Ducati, through the consolidation of successes in MotoGP and Superbike, with the creation of high-performance and exciting road motorcycles and cutting-edge technological solutions, with the awareness of an eye always turned to the future.

A future that has been consolidated and rooted on the Via Emilia, in the name of a tradition and brand that have become legendary in Borgo Panigale, in the Motorvalley.

The carefully restored foundation stone, two years after the Borgo Panigale company's centennial, will play a role as a bridge between past, present and future at World Ducati Week 2024. In fact, in front of the same historic building where the first stone was laid almost 90 years ago, an exhibition area will be created that will be an integral part of the Ducatisti's itinerary during WDW. The stone will be visible to all people visiting the Ducati Factory and Museum in the days before and immediately after the event. As in previous editions, WDW ticket holders will have access at a reduced rate.