Mussolini's Rome: how the city changed with the rise and fall of the Duce

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MUSSOLINI’S ROME:

HOW THE CITY CHANGED WITH THE RISE AND FALL OF THE DUCE

by

Dana Louise Marinin

________________________________________________________________________

A Thesis Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
MASTER OF HISTORIC PRESERVATION

May 2012

Copyright 2012 Dana Louise Marinin
ii
Epigraph

I should like to divide the problems of Rome, the Rome of this twentieth century, into
two categories: the problems of necessity and the problems of grandeur. One cannot
confront the latter unless the first had been solved. The problems of necessity rise from
the growth of Rome and are encompassed in the binomial: housing and communications.
The problems of grandeur are of another kind: we must liberate all of ancient Rome form
the mediocre construction that disfigures it, but side by side with the Rome of antiquity
and Christianity we must also create the monumental Rome of the twentieth century.
Rome cannot, must not, be solely a modern city, in the by now banal sense of the word; it
must be a city worth of its glory, and that glory must be revivified tirelessly to pass it on
as the legacy of the Fascist era to the generations to come! (Benito Mussolini, 1924)

iii

Table of Contents

Epigraph ii

List of Figures iv

Abstract vi

Introduction 1

Chapter 1: The Birth of Mussolini & Fascism 6
Benito Mussolini 7
Fascism 9
Romanità 12

Chapter 2: The Fascist Landscape 15
The Fasces 15
The Built Environment 16
Adaption and Reuse 19
New Construction 35
Temporary Exhibits 41

Chapter 3: Foreign Policy 47
Libya 48
Ethiopia 50
Hitler and World War II 51
Mussolini’s First Fall 54
Mussolini Returns 56
The Italian Resistance Movement 57
Allied Control, The End of World War II,
and The Second Fall of Mussolini 58

Chapter 4: Erasing Mussolini 60
Mussolini in the Built Environment 62
Foro Mussolini 62
The Piazzale Augusto Imperatore 65
Termini Station 68

Conclusion 71

Bibliography 73

iv

List of Figures

Figure 1: The Italian state coat-of-arms, adopted 1929 16

Figure 2: Mussolini depicted in a Caesarian Trio 17

Figure 3: Mussolini Salutes from his balcony on the Piazza
Venezia 21

Figure 4: The Via del Mare 23

Figure 5: The Circus Maximus 24

Figure 6: Via dell’Impero 26

Figure 7: Mussolini’s marble maps on the Via dell’Impero 27

Figure 8: The Piazzale Augusto Imperatore 29

Figure 9: Mussolini opens construction around the
Mausoleum of Augustus 30

Figure 10: Mussolini’s obelisk in the Foro Italico 36

Figure 11: Forum Boarium Mosaic, Foro Italico 37

Figure 12: Word Mosaic, Foro Italico 37

Figure 13: The Square Coliseum 40

Figure 14: The façade of the Mostra della Rivoluzione Fascista 42

Figure 15: The façade of the Mostra Augustae della Romanità 45

Figure 16: Italy enters Africa 48

Figure 17: Mussolini and Hitler stand on the Altar of the
Fatherland in Rome 52

Figure 18: The body of Mussolini displayed in Milan, 1945 59

Figure 19: The broken and defaced remnants of Mussolini’s
fifth marble map 61

v

Figure 20: Olympic Stadium 63

Figure 21: Roman arms on Fabbricato B 66

Figure 22: Fascist arms on Fabbricato B 66

Figure 23: East Elevation, Ara Pacis Museum, Richard Meier, 2006 67

Figure 24: Termini, c. 1890 69

Figure 25: Termini Ticketing Hall, c. 1950 70

vi

Abstract

This thesis will discuss how the city of Rome physically changed as Benito Mussolini
rose and fell from power. It will first outline the major changes to the Roman landscape
under Mussolini’s leadership and explain the underlying philosophies that caused them.
It will then trace Italy’s forge into international politics and cultivation of a relationship
with Adolf Hitler. Next it will discuss Italy’s entrance into World War II and the fall of
Mussolini from power. Finally, the thesis will outline how the citizens dealt with the
physical remnants of Mussolini after his fall. It will show that the Italian people and
government of Rome utilized three distinct tactics to remove Mussolini from the physical
environment of Rome, post World War II.

1
Introduction

The city of Rome has changed constantly since its founding in 753 BCE. Over
thousands of years, the urban environment transformed as different eras rose and fell.
Buildings were adapted for different uses, preexisting areas were rebuilt, and each new
city grew from the one before. Each Rome stands as an example of its time, with hints
and echoes of the past.
To understand one singular version of the built environment, the previous
manifestations must also be considered. When Mussolini took power, he immediately
looked to shape the urban form of Rome to benefit his Fascist agenda. But to do so, he
had to contend with the other Romes, still present in the landscape.
Ancient Rome, specifically the period of Imperial Rome, dated 27 BCE – 1453
CE, is the historical period most often recalled in regard to the built environment.
Augustus (27 BCE – 14 CE) not only founded the empire of Rome, but he is responsible
for a massive reconfiguration of the city of Rome.
1
Thanks to an abundance of wealth
streaming into the capital city from the provinces, the emperors produced massive
monuments, arenas, amphitheatres, public baths, and temples. Imperial Rome is also
responsible for creating an infrastructure for the city. Their drainage system, the Cloaca
Maxima, constructed over 2,500 years ago, still functions at present day.
The organization of the imperial capital was fluid. Although they paid great
attention to the formation and order of new colonial urban centers, Rome’s streets

1
Peter Connolly and Hazel Dodge, The Ancient City: Life in Classical Athens and Rome, (Oxford: Oxford
UP, 1998), 110.

2
appeared within the urban landscape organically and unsystematically. At important
ceremonial centers, monuments and buildings were arranged to create vistas and
imposing views, but in the residential areas, housing structures were crammed together
with little attention to design and safety.
2
Ancient Rome heavily featured pinpoints of
great architecture and design, surrounded by squalor and disarray.
As the centuries passed and imperial power declined, the squalor and disarray
began to overtake the great monumental buildings. Christianity became the official
religion of the Roman Empire in 380 BCE, closing the former monumental temples to
pagan gods. The late emperors moved the capital from Rome and ordered closing of the
state owned quarry system. Instead, they stripped the existing buildings of Rome for
materials. This trend would almost entirely destroy Rome’s ancient buildings.
The city was also greatly affected by outside forces. The waning empire was in a
constant state of war, feebly attempting to hold on to power. The city of Rome itself was
sacked and looted by the northern Goths. The provinces that once supplied the great city
were lost, along with their economic and agricultural supplies. The disintegration of the
empire weighed heavily on the urban environment – fresh water supplies deteriorated,
trash and sewage accumulated, and the population greatly decreased.
The Medieval city of Rome existed in complete opposition to its imperial
predecessor. The citizens of Rome now lived in a dangerous city filled with squalor and
disease. They looked at the surrounding ancient buildings not as historical markers within

2
Anthony Tung, Preserving the World’s Great Cities: The Destruction and Renewal of the Historic
Metropolis (New York: Three Rivers Press, 2001), 32.

3
the landscape, but as means to survival. Many abandoned ancient structures were
adapted or built over to create housing – great imperial monuments became apartment
homes.
3

In the middle of the fifteenth century, Pope Martin V and the papacy returned to
Rome. The artists of the Italian Renaissance, patrons of the papacy, soon followed to
create a city worthy of the Catholic Church. They would draw heavy inspiration from the
remaining ancient monuments that managed to survive within the landscape. They would
also bring new ideas of style, order, and artistic techniques.
The transformation of the urban landscape under the popes was rapid; funds were
readily available from the rich merchant states in northern Italy and the popes had a
plethora of artists and architects at their disposal. They embarked on a complete urban
transformation.
The popes did more than simply add in new construction to the landscape. They
regulated the destruction and reuse of ancient buildings, ensuring remnants of Ancient
Rome would remain in the city. They also looked to create a designed urban
environment. The Renaissance architects paid close attention to spatial order, city
planning, and visual urban effects.
4
They not only created buildings, but also placed
voids in the city and created an overall designed cityscape. “[…] The popes deliberately

3
George Holmes ed. The Oxford Illustrated History of Italy. (Oxford, Oxford UP, 1997), 37.

4
Tung, Preserving the World’s Great Cities, 43.

4
built a city that was a work of art [and] a stage set for urban living.”
5
Renaissance Rome
was visually pleasing and functional for the average citizen.
By the late seventeenth century, the northern Italian states experienced an
economic downturn and the flow of wealth into Rome all but stopped. In an attempt to
maintain their grandiose state, the Papacy heavily increased taxes on their Italian City
States. Eventually, Catholics discontent with their increasingly corrupt popes, shaped the
Reformation and Counter-Reformation. The diminished Papacy could no longer afford
grand urban construction projects.
The unification of Italy ended papal rule over the City of Rome.
6
While the popes
had returned the capital city to place of architectural grandeur, they had not focused on
updating amenities to a modern level. The sanitation system was lacking and pedestrians
struggled with poor lighting. Outside the city, most of the country remained largely
agricultural. Italy, and its capital city, were far behind the other European powers such as
France and England. The new Constitutional Monarchy set out to modernize the city and
bring Italy into an industrial economy.
The modernization of Rome was outlined in a master plan, the Piano Regolatore.
In this plan, the remaining buildings of the ancients and of the Renaissance would remain
in situ, examples of Rome’s past in the landscape. New additions to the urban fabric
would fill in gaps in the cityscape, but focus mainly on the outskirts of the old city.

5
Ibid., 44.

6
The Papacy left Rome and entered its own independent state, which became Vatican City under the
Lateran Treaty of 1929.

5
A major focus was also placed on readying the city for modern amenities, most
notably, the automobile. The historic, narrow streets were incapable of fitting cars, and
the city overall was insufficiently organized for the proper flow of traffic.
As the city of Rome began to face the issues of modernization, it was also met
with a new leader and new government. Benito Mussolini brought with him a new
political ideology and a new plan for the state. His power extended throughout the Italian
peninsula and into Northern Africa as he sought international prestige. Wherever
Mussolini ruled, he altered the landscape to promote his Fascist ideology and created a
unique physical environment. His interventions on the landscape are evident throughout
the Italian peninsula, in every main Italian city, and in the North African regions
colonized under his rule. Nowhere, however, was his touch more intimate than in the
capital city of Rome.

6
Chapter 1: The Birth of Mussolini and Fascism
In the first years of the twentieth century, nationalism gained great popularity in
Italy. Giovanni Giolitti was elected as Italy’s prime minister in 1903; under his
leadership, Italy saw rapid social and economic change and political accommodation.
7

Nationalism, which had grown throughout nineteenth-century Europe, became a strong
political force in Italy, inspiring the declaration of war against Turkey in 1911. Italy
hoped to gain power over Libya, which Turkey controlled, and join the band of European
colonial powers.
With the outbreak of World War I, debates over entering the conflict raged in
Italy. The country was divided on remaining neutral or intervening. The Italian
government negotiated with both sides: current allies Austria-Hungary and Germany on
one side and the Triple Entente (Britain, France, and Russia) on the other. The Triple
Entente’s offers were more intriguing; “[Italians] concluded the Treaty of London with
Entente negotiators, pledging their nation to rapid action in return for territorial gains.”
8

Ultimately, the war devastated Italy: over 600,000 men were dead and the country faced a
huge financial crisis.
9
Furthermore, although officially a victor, Italy was poorly
represented at the concluding Paris Peace Conference. Italy did not receive much of the
territory promised in the Treaty of London; it was allotted some territory but the rest of

7
Rinn S. Shinn, Italy: A Country Study (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1985), 47.

8
R. J. B. Bosworth, Mussolini’s Italy: Life Under the Dictatorship, 1915 – 1945 (New York: Penguin,
2006), 58-59.

9
Shinn, Italy: A Country Study, 51.

7
the eastern Adriatic coast became part of Yugoslavia.
10
The Italian government and
people believed Italy had been treated unfairly, a source of great resentment after the war.
The transition from wartime back to peace was difficult. Italy left the war with a
damaged national psyche and treasury.
11
Businesses were forced into bankruptcy, middle-
class earnings were wiped out, and the working class was faced with another wave of
labor shortages. The current government leaders did not address the issues plaguing the
country quickly or efficiently. “The worse the crisis became the less able were the men
at the centre of the system to do anything about it.”
12
This opened the door for other
parties to stake claims for power. “Within a few short years, a Fascist ‘revolution’
proved that Mussolini and his friends were those armed with the most effective
immediate replies.”
13
Indeed, the turmoil in Italy after World War I created the conditions
in which the Fascists and Mussolini could take power.
Benito Mussolini
It is impossible to understand the rise of Italian Fascism without Benito
Mussolini. Benito Mussolini was of humble birth, born in 1883 near the small village of
Predappio, Italy. His father Alessandro was a blacksmith; his mother Rosa Maltonis
taught school. Both his parents were active in local government and politics. His father

10
Nicholas Farrell, Mussolini: A New Life (London: Phoenix Press, 2003), 76.

11
Bosworth, Mussolini’s Italy, 53.

12
Farrell, A New Life, 77.

13
Bosworth, Mussolini’s Italy, 95.

8
was an active socialist, even jailed for participating in a riot.
14
In fact Mussolini’s
revolutionary-minded parents named him after Benito Juarez, a Mexican revolutionary
who fought against French occupation of Mexico City in 1861 and the installation of
Habsburg Emperor Maximilian.
15

In 1902, Mussolini moved to Switzerland to escape military service. The next
several years would prove important in the development of his political ideology; in
Switzerland, Mussolini would learn and adopt Socialism. Poor, hungry, and arrested
several times, his experiences altered his ways of thinking; he became interested in
journalism and politics. By the time he left Switzerland, Mussolini was already revising
Socialist tenets with his nationalistic and elitist ideas.
16
In 1904, Mussolini returned to
Italy to perform his military service. When his service ended, he resumed trade union
work, journalism, and politics, and began editing the official Socialist newspaper,
Avanti!
17
Soon, however, he began to adopt the Marxist tenet that social revolution
always followed war. While Socialists opposed World War I because they believed it
was a result of European imperialism and capitalist profiteering, Mussolini began to think
otherwise.
Although a strong proponent of neutrality during the outbreak of World War I, by
1915 it was becoming increasingly clear to Mussolini that the war itself was necessary for

14
R. J. B. Bosworth, Mussolini (London: Arnold Press, 2002), 37.

15
Denis Mack Smith, Mussolini (New York: Knopf, 1982), 1.

16
Farrell, A New Life, 30.

17
Bosworth, Mussolini, 89.

9
revolution.
18
He now saw the war as a vehicle for social insurgency. Joining the winning
side could provide opportunities for Italy, an opportunity to alter history. Not
surprisingly, other Socialists did not agree. Mussolini’s newly acquired interventionist
views caused him to resign from Avanti!, adopt nationalism, and subsequently split from
the Socialists completely. Uninspired by other contemporary political groups, Mussolini
did not realign himself with any other party. He set out to develop his own.
Fascism
In 1919, he created his own movement in direct response to the social and
political turmoil in Italy. The movement, which took the name Fascio di Combattimento
(combat bundles), officially began at an organized meeting in Milan’s Piazza San
Sepolcro. “In his speech to the meeting, Mussolini rejected both Italian Socialism and
Russian Bolshevism, and proposed a system that would put the interests of the nation
above those of class.”
19
The movement’s ideology also stressed the importance of an
expert leader and “psychological inspiration of national patriotism.”
20
Through 1922,
Mussolini honed the rhetoric of nationalism to fit in his Fascist ideology; the two ideas
combined fluently.
21

18
Smith, Mussolini, 24.

19
Farrell, A New Life, 81.

20
Luigi Villari, Italian Foreign Policy Under Mussolini (New York; Devin-Adair Company, 1956), 10.

21
Mabel Berezin, Making the Fascist Self: The Political Culture of Interwar Italy (Ithaca: Cornell UP,
1997), 45.

10
The Fascists of 1919-20 exploited the immediate postwar climate. They defined
themselves as an “anti-party,” representing no political structure.
22
As the current
government failed, the populace was more likely to turn to the antiestablishment ideals of
Fascism. These early years were spent laying the foundations of the Fascist movement;
once the base was secure, the movement could continue working towards the assumption
of political power.
The years from 1919 - 1922 were full of violent confrontations, especially
between communist redshirts and Fascist Blackshirts, Mussolini’s armed fighting force.
In an attempt to strong-arm remaining Socialists, Blackshirts used their numbers and
brute force to intimidate them.
23
One of the most notable physical altercations occurred
on September 10, 1921. Blackshirts “began to converge on Ravenna … near the Rubicon
which Julius Caesar crossed en route to seize Rome.”
24
In an atmosphere of continuing
violence and disarray, Mussolini needed a way to assert influence. He decided to
transform the Fascist movement into the Fascist party.
25
Now, as the Partito Nazionale
Fascista (PNF), the Fascists could enter Italian politics officially. In doing so, Mussolini
secured his place as leading politician.
Beyond giving himself power within the new Fascist party, Mussolini also
positioned himself to gain power in the Italian government. By the fall of 1922,

22
Phillip V. Cannistraro, ed. Historical Dictionary of Fascist Italy (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press,
1982), 400.

23
Bosworth, Mussolini’s Italy, 173.

24
Berezin, Making the Fascist Self, 107.

25
Ibid.

11
Mussolini had entered Italian political debates. Fascism was continuing to gain
popularity, increasingly weakening the current government. In the early days of October,
the Fascist party decided it was time to seize power. On October 28, under the leadership
of Mussolini, the March on Rome pushed into the city.
26
The march worked brilliantly,
“even though the marching fascists proved poorly armed and easily distracted by the
commencement of autumnal rains and by their lack of good maps.”
27
The real assault
occurred through the phone lines at Mussolini’s base in Milan. On the morning of
October 29, Mussolini received a phone call. King Victor Emmanuel III had no real
intention of abdicating to Mussolini, but understood Mussolini was capable of holding a
firm stance and controlling civic unrest.
28
The King was aware that his army was
incapable of subduing the Fascists. In an attempt to retain some power, he compromised
and asked Mussolini to form a government. Mussolini was named Prime Minister of
Italy on October 31, 1922. The main focus of his early career was action. His goals were
to suppress Socialism, tame parliament, and make the name of Italy feared abroad.
29

From the very beginning of his rule, Mussolini also sought to create and control a New
Roman Empire.

26
Bosworth, Mussolini, 167. The march on Rome was the revolt by which Mussolini took power in Italy.
It marked the beginning of Fascist rule and the end of parliamentary control.

27
Ibid., 168.

28
Smith, Mussolini, 53.

29
Denis Mack Smith, Mussolini’s Roman Empire (New York: Viking, 1976), 1.

12
Romanità
When Mussolini took office as Prime Minister of Italy, he faced a complex and
ambitious task of developing and promoting the ideological framework of Fascism. The
success of his regime depended on his creation of a new national identity and cultural
understanding. To support and legitimize his state, he looked to the past to secure the
future.
Mussolini turned to the history and reputation of Classical Rome to justify and
rationalize his actions. Romanità, the idea of maintaining “Romanness”, was essential to
Mussolini and his Fascist regime. “The cult of Ancient Rome formed part of Fascism’s
attempt to manufacture a new national identity. Liberalism and parliamentary democracy
could be dismissed as foreign imports; Fascism, by contrast, was indigenous a revival of
the real genius of Italy and is people going back, via the Renaissance, to the time of the
Caesars. Romanness permeated of corners of Fascist life.”
30
The Fascists took Romanità
and adapted it for their benefit. “Romanità … for the Fascists, meant a profound spiritual
and historical destiny to be made real through fascism.”
31
Fascism, through the
leadership of Mussolini, would restore Rome to its former glory, the same glory
highlighted specifically in Imperial Rome.
On April 22, 1922, just months before the Fascists took control of the Italian
government, Mussolini stated:

30
Christopher Duggan, A Concise History of Italy (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1994), 227.

31
Marla Stone, “A Flexible Rome: Fascism and the Cult of the Romanità,” in Receptions of Rome in
European Culture, 1789 – 1945, ed. Catharine Edwards (Cambridge: Cambridge UP), 205.

13
Rome is our point of departure and reference. It is our
symbol or, if you wish our myth. We dream of a Roman
Italy, that is to say wise, strong, disciplined and imperial.
Much of that which was the immortal spirit of Rome rises
again in fascism: the Fasces are Roman; our organization of
combat is Roman, our pride and courage is Roman: Civis
romanus sum (we are citizens of Rome). It is necessary,
now, that the history of tomorrow, the history we fervently
wish to create, not be a contrast or a parody of the history
of yesterday. The Romans were not only warriors, but
formidable builders who could challenge, as they did
challenge, their time. Italy had been Roman for the first
time in fifteen centuries, in war and in victory. Now it
must be Roman in peacetime: and this renewed and revived
Romanità bears these names: discipline and work.
32

Mussolini utilized the narrative of continuity between the past of the Italian
peninsula and the present under Fascism to create a new landscape of Fascism.
33
He
created a new atmosphere to surround the Italian people, especially those in the city of
Rome proper. Italians were subjected to new Fascist cultural policies and laws, but also
to the new spaces and the look of the city surrounding them.
Mussolini won great public support by using the concept of Romanità to his
advantage. Executing his policies through this historical lens allowed Italians to accept
his new fascist landscape and Mussolini’s role as leader. Mussolini chose to assert
himself as a savior, bringing Italy out of dark times into the light of empire, aligning
himself with great emperors of Roman history. Romanità enabled Mussolini to create a

32
Borden W. Painter, Mussolini’s Rome: Rebuilding the Eternal City (New York: Palgrave-Macmillan,
2005), 3.

33
Claudia Lazzaro and Roger J. Crum, “Introduction,” in Donatello Among the Blackshirts: History and
Modernity in the Visual Culture of Fascist Italy, ed. Claudia Lazzaro and Roger J. Crum, (Ithaca: Cornell
UP, 2005), 7.

14
role for himself in history as the next great Italian leader. Journalist Emil Ludwig
interviewed Mussolini over several days in 1932. In one meeting, Ludwig declared the
Duce’s fondness of architecture was “extremely Roman.” Mussolini replied, “I, likewise,
am Roman above all.”
34

34
Painter, Mussolini’s Rome, 19.

15
Chapter 2: The Fascist Landscape
Mussolini surrounded Romans with symbols, architectural projects, and
temporary installations that all reflected the cultural ideals of Fascism. His first step was
to create a symbol of Fascism.
The Fasces
The most prominent Fascist symbol was the fasces. Fasces is derived from the
fascio littorio – a bundle of rods bound together with an ax, carried by lictors, Ancient
Roman officials. Mussolini was not the first to use the fasces in a political context; the
term was commonly used to signify a political group or human bundle.
35
Sicilian peasant
workers in the 1890s formed fasci dei lavoratori, or workers’ fasces, to protest poor
social conditions. Between 1914 and 1915 Italian interventionists founded the Fasci di
Azione Rivoluzionaria (Fasces of Revolutionary Action) to promote Italian intervention
in World War I.
36
Mussolini adopted the term in 1919 when he officially formed the
Fascio di Combattimento.
The fasces represented Mussolini’s regime and ideology. In the same sense of the
fasces’ physical form, Fascism looked to bond the many people of Rome together into a
singular strong nation (Figure 1). “Fascism was much given to enthusing about unity; the

35
Claudia Lazzaro, “Forging a Visible Fascist Nation: Strategies for Fusing Past and Present,” in Donatello
Among the Blackshirts: History and Modernity in the Visual Culture of Fascist Italy, ed. Claudia Lazzaro
and Roger J. Crum (Ithaca: Cornell UP, 2005), 16.

36
Simonetta Falasca-Zamponi, Fascist Spectacle: The Aesthetics of Power in Mussolini’s Italy (Berkley:
University of California Press, 1997), 95.

16
fasces … pledged the dictatorship to bind Italians inseparably together.”
37
The fasces
became the symbolic representation of Fascism.
In 1926 it was adopted as the official emblem of the regime: immediately the
fasces was inserted throughout the culture. It
was placed on coins, buildings, stamps,
stationery, jewelry, and furniture; the people of
Italy were inundated. Mussolini even placed it
on ancient monuments in Rome.
38

As an official symbol, the fasces was a
perfect blend of past and present: an ancient
object that specifically represented his Fascist
ideology. Italians could not help but absorb
the idea that Fascism would successfully bring
power and prestige back to Italy.
The Built Environment
The urban landscape of Rome also felt the heavy hand of Mussolini. The city was
the physical center of both the Ancient Empire and Fascist Italy. Much like the fasces,
Mussolini used the physicality of Rome to create and advertise a collective Fascist
identity. In architecture, Romanità functioned as “the historical imperative linking all
Italians; within this, the contemporary (Fascist) city of Rome became the ‘Third Rome’ –

37
Bosworth, Mussolini’s Italy, 13-14.

38
Example: the Theatre of Marcellus

Figure 1. The Italian state coat-of-arms, adopted
1929. Emilio Gentile, The Sacralization of
Politics in Fascist Italy (Cambridge: Harvard
University Press, 1996), 55.

17
the Rome to surpass that of the Caesars and that of the popes.”
39
Romanità was expressed
through the fabric of the city – the ruins, monuments, and ancient roads all represented
the glory of the ancient empire. Mussolini employed
the tradition of Roman imperialism through a series
of imposing architectural and engineering projects.
40

He created the physical representation of Romanità
and Fascism, visible to anyone in the city.
The landscape of Rome, as Mussolini found it,
was already in a state of flux: predominately still in
the past, but also reaching toward the future. It is
impossible to walk through the city of Rome without
running into the past, “Woven together organically
were old Roman ruins, medieval accretions, and
Renaissance additions.”
41
Mussolini’s immediate predecessors were looking to
modernize the city – widening roads for automobiles, adding new monuments into the
urban framework, and giving freedoms to land speculators to destroy homes and other
works of architecture to erect apartment blocks. As Mussolini came to power he grasped
the concept of interspersing the new within the old. Following his ideals, he focused
mainly on promoting the ruins of Imperial Rome, and inserting Fascist constructs into the

39
Stone, “A Flexible Rome,” 217.

40
Peter Bondanella, The Eternal City: Roman Images in the Modern World (Chapel Hill: University of
North Carolina Press, 1987), 172.

41
Tung, Preserving the World’s Great Cities, 61.
Figure 2. Mussolini depicted in a Caesarian
Trio. R.J.B. Bosworth, Mussolini’s Italy: Life
Under the Fascist Dictatorship, 1915 – 1945
(New York: Penguin Press, 2005), plate 28.

18
city. “As a fascist he understood the importance of Rome and its history in the formation
of a new ideology that would wed past and present. The city’s rich history monuments,
and sites could now be used and refashioned by the regime to define and display the
fascist Italy.”
42
Of course, since “[…] Mussolini wished to symbolically identify the
Fascist state with the imperial city of Roman history, he began a program to reestablish
the primacy of ruins in the cityscape, and escalated the devastation of medieval areas.”
43

Creating a stark juxtaposition, and connection, between Fascist and Imperial Rome was
his ultimate goal.
While the first projects in the city of Rome were executed in the early years of
Mussolini’s rule, the major endeavors did not begin until 1931, when the Duce prepared
the city for the Decennale, the celebration of the first decade of Fascist rule. Mussolini
approved a new version of the Piano Regolatore. This form of the overarching plan for
Rome’s development was unique “in its obvious attempt to incorporate the regime’s
messages throughout the city, especially the parallelism between the deeds of the regime
and its classical precedent.”
44
The plan maintained two central goals: deal with the
organization of the old city and create new areas.
The plan called for the liberation of ancient mythic monuments, creation of new
avenues and buildings, and widespread use of Fascist symbols and propaganda within the
urban landscape. “The need for improving traffic circulation was joined now with more

42
Painter, Mussolini’s Rome, 2.

43
Tung, Preserving the World’s Great Cities, 61.

44
Painter, Mussolini’s Rome, 17.

19
explicit political programs to invest civic space with clear ideological value.”
45
The other
main component of the plan called for the widespread demolition of areas considered to
have little or no historic value,
46
areas not associated with the ancient city or Fascism.
Many of these non-historic areas were tenement apartments for Rome’s working class.
Mussolini’s goal to clear the city of non-important structures displaced thousands of
Roman citizens from their homes.
47
Nothing, or no one, stood in the way of the urban
landscape Mussolini desired.
The fascists employed three techniques to alter the urban environment: reuse and
adaption of existing places and objects, creation of new construction within the existing
urban landscape, and building temporary propagandistic exhibitions.
Adaption and Reuse
Some of the most drastic changes to the existing urban environment occurred to
the area surrounding the Foro Romano (the ancient Roman Forum). It is no surprise
Mussolini chose to focus much of his attention to this part of the city. In Ancient Rome,
the Forum was the hub of the city. It was the political, institutional, and symbolic center
of the city – it served as a public open space where Romans could socialize, discuss
politics, participate in the judicial system and in public festivals and rituals.
48
As the

45
Terry Kirk, The Architecture of Modern Italy, Vol. 2: Visions of Utopia, 1900 – Present (New York:
Princeton Architectural Press, 2005), 120.

46
Painter, Mussolini’s Rome, 8.

47
Spiro Kostof, The Third Rome: 1870 – 1950 Traffic and Glory (Berkley: University of California Art
Museum, 1973), 72.

48
Amanda Claridge, Oxford Archaeological Guides: Rome (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1998), 62.

20
center of Ancient Rome physically and symbolically, it was the perfect place to launch
Mussolini’s Fascist ideological ploy and link his government to the past. “Certainly it
was for the purpose of giving the Italians a feeling of their own past glory, and still more
of inspiring them with the ideal that their destiny is fulfilled only when the Rome of
today equals the Rome of antiquity, that Mussolini launched this colossal undertaking.”
49

In general, Mussolini encircled the Forum with a new network of wider, easily
traversed roads. This network started at the Piazza Venezia and ran south along both
sides of the Forum, reconnecting near the Coliseum. Road building itself was promoted
as an ancient tradition. As a New York Times article suggested in 1933, “The new roads
… are as fine as those historic highways that in Europe and Africa have survived 2,000
years. Once more road-builders seem to be paving the way to Roman greatness.”
50
But it
was more than the streets; Mussolini also treated the areas surrounding the circuit. The
fascists utilized a “[…] method of ‘thinning’ the urban fabric like weeding a garden to
give sufficient light and space to what remained.”
51
And what remained were the ancient
monuments that Mussolini incorporated into his Fascist propaganda. Mussolini
systematically worked to surround the monuments of ancient Rome with his Fascist
cloak.

49
Valentine Thomson, “Mussolini Builds A Rome of the Caesars,” New York Times, Mar 19, 1933, sec.
SM6.

50
Ibid.

51
Kirk, The Architecture of Modern Italy, 120.

21
Directly north of the Foro Romano sits the grandiose monument to Victor
Emmanuelle II. The result of an international competition to honor the first Italian king,
the Neo-Baroque monument of enormous scale was literally cut into the city fabric.
52

Oriented north, away from the Forum, the monument opens into the adjacent Piazza
Venezia, a place that defines how Mussolini
viewed and treated the built environment.
Mussolini chose the Piazza Venezia as
his headquarters and the spatial heart of his
Fascist nation: its location in the city fit ideally
within Mussolini’s scheme.
53
From Piazza
Venezia one could gaze south, beyond the
Victor Emmanuelle II monument, to the
epicenter of Imperial Rome, the Forum (Figure
3).
54

Choosing this site for his headquarters
in direct sight of imperial splendor “realized
one of the long-standing dreams of Fascist
ideology – the merger of ancient Roman imperial traditions and values with those of the

52
Stefan Grundmann, ed. The Architecture of Rome, An Architectural History in 402 Individual
Presentations, 2
nd
Edition (Stugart: Edition Axel Mengeo, 2007), 288.

53
It was also far enough way from the King who resided at the Quirinal Palace.

54
Mussolini did not commission the Victor Emanuel Monument or oversee its construction. It was
designed by Giuseppe Sacconi in 1885, inaugurated in 1911, and completed in 1935.
Figure 3. Mussolini salutes from his balcony on
the Piazza Venezia. Simonetta Falasca-Zamponi,
Fascist Spectacle: The Aesthetics of Power in
Mussolini’s Italy (Berkley: University of
California Press, 1997), 97.

22
new and modern fascist state.”
55
Fascist cultural policies were a blend of old and new
Rome, and so was the area of his headquarters. Fascism picked up where Ancient Rome
left off: the Piazza Venezia began where the ancient forum ended. It was fitting that the
headquarters of a government, using the past as authority in the present, sat in the area of
Rome where the ancient ruins met the modern city.

Settled in his headquarters, Mussolini executed the orders for the projects that
would alter the city’s urban landscape. He started with constructing new road patterns
around the ancient forum, establishing a diamond shaped path from Piazza Venezia to the
Coliseum and back.
From the Piazza Venezia, Via del Mare (Road to the Sea) heads south around the
Capitoline Hill (Figure 4). Along its curve, the road passes the ancient Theatre of
Marcellus. This monument, initiated by Julius Caesar and finished by Augusts, was
surrounded by non-historic infill, mostly working class tenements.
56
To ensure this
Augustan monument would be visible from the Via del Mare, Mussolini “liberated” it
from its surroundings. He also marked the monument with a fasces, making sure anyone
who set eyes on the monument would also note the Fascists’ role in opening it for the
public.

55
Bondenalla, The Eternal City, 205.

56
Painter, Mussolini’s Rome, 9.

23

The road circuit continued to Piazza Bocca della Verità, pass the ancient river
port of the Forum Boarium. Here several other ancient structures were highlighted
alongside the new Fascist road. The fourth-century Arch of Janus, the Round Temple to
Hercules, and the Temple of Fortuna Virilis were all “liberated,” standing free and open
to view. Today, it is impossible to miss this Fascist road in the key area of ancient Rome.
It runs from the Capitoline as the Via del Teatro di Marcello and becomes the Via Luigi
Petroselli near the Piazza Bocca della Verità.
Piazza Bocca della Verità connects the Forum Boarium to the Via del Circo
Massimo and the Piazza di Porta Capena. Running parallel to the Via del Circo
Massimo is the ancient circus itself (Figure 5). The Circo Massimo, Circus Maximus,
was a rectangular track in the valley between the Palatine and Aventine hills. The
Figure 4. The Via del Mare. Dana Marinin, Aug. 2005

24
Ancient Romans primarily used the circus for chariot racing, but it was also available for
public executions, gladiatorial contests, and wild animal hunts.
57
In the late 1920s,

the circus was filled with shacks and the city gas works.
58
An English language tourist
monthly described the area as:
Utterly abandoned and this wonderful zone of Imperial
Rome, once so important and animated, was forgotten so
that gradually it was covered with ramshackle squalid
cottages, sheds, hayricks, small workshops, rag-pickers’
sorting dumps and factories of artificial manure. The entire
area of the Circus Maximus was, so to speak, converted …
into the city’s rubbish dump, shunned by the citizens and
overlooked by the city authorities.
59

57
Claridge, Archaeological Guide, 264.

58
Painter, Mussolini’s Rome, 32.

59
Ibid., 5.

Figure 5. The Circus Maximus. Dana Marinin, Aug. 2005

25
Mussolini changed all that by clearing the area in 1934 and turning it into a site of
Fascist exhibitions. Four major exhibitions took place between 1937 and 1939: the
Exhibit of Summer Camps; the Exhibit of National Textiles; the Exhibit of the Leisure
Time Organization (the Dopolavoro); and the Exhibit of Autarchy of Italian Minerals.
60

Mussolini had returned the circus to echo its ancient purpose. Once again, Italians
flocked to the circus to be entertained by spectacles of Italian greatness. By clearing the
Circus Maximus, Mussolini created a space to where he could present more Fascist
cultural ideas to the people. Here, on an ancient site of spectacle, Romans were
surrounded with the great ideals of Fascism. The Circus Maximus became a grand stage
of Fascist cultural promotion.
On the south east end of the Circus Maximus, opposite the Via del Mare, the Via
di San Gregorio, running from the Piazza di Porta Capena, opens to one of the most
recognizable areas of Rome. The Arch of Constantine marks the end of the modern road;
just beyond it lies the ancient Via Sacra, the Sacred Way, leading to the ancient entrance
of the Foro Romano. Nearby, the Coliseum, arguably the most famous Roman
monument, looms high. And finally, on the other side of the Coliseum runs another of
Mussolini’s new roads, the Via dell’Impero. This connects the Coliseum to the Piazza
Venezia, cutting through the heart of Ancient Rome and completing the Fascist circuit.
The Via dell’Impero ran through the most ancient area of Rome (Figure 6).
Heading north from the Coliseum, the Forum Romano sits to the west as the great
Imperial Forums of Julius Caesar and the emperors Augustus and Trajan loom to the east.

60
Ibid., 33.

26
These forums were constructed to highlight the achievements of each emperor or built
after their death by their successor in honor and memoriam.

But Mussolini did not revere these ancient places as sacred or untouchable. The
road construction actually bisected the Forum of Caesar and covered a majority of the
archeological excavation. Mussolini was more concerned with creating a spatial
relationship between himself and the ancient leaders. As his Fascist parades and
triumphs traversed the Via dell’Impero Mussolini’s display of glory was compared to that
of the ancient rulers nearby. Although important to his cause and propaganda scheme,
ancient sites would not stand in the way of Fascist wants or needs.
Promoting the superiority and great successes of Fascism was an integral part of
Mussolini’s urban construction projects. In the same area of the Imperial Forums on the
Via dell’Impero, he created and hung five marble maps on the outer wall of the Basilica
Figure 6. The Via dell’Impero. Dana Marinin, Aug. 2005.

27
Maxentius (Figure 7).
61
These maps depicted the Roman Empire at various times in
history, tracing the history of Rome from its foundation until its greatest imperial
power.
62
The maps were positioned in chronological order, marking the beginning of
Rome in the eighth Century BC. The second depicted the territory of Rome after the
Punic Wars in the year 146 BC. The third map shows the empire at the death of Emperor
Augustus in the year 14 AD; and the fourth, the empire at the time of the Emperor Trajan.
The fifth map depicted Mussolini’s New Roman Empire – Italian land holdings after his
military forays in North Africa.
63

The four maps that portrayed the
classical Empire maintain the same basic
construction, while the last, representing
Mussolini’s empire, was slightly different.
Larger in size than the first four, Fascist
Italy’s title plaque in the corner was much
more significant. “Instead of a simple title
like the other maps, the Fascist map [carried] a
lengthy inscription reproducing…part of the imperial decree of May 9, 1936.”
64
The fifth

61
in 1934

62
Bosworth, Mussolini’s Italy, 440.

63
The inscriptions are written in Italian, in the style of Ancient Roman monumental inscriptions. The first
four maps read: ROMA AI SUOI INIZI. SEC. VIII A.C., DOMINIO DI ROMA DOPO LE GVERRE
PVNICHE-A. 146 A.C., L’IMPERO ALLA MORTE D’AVGUSTO IMP. A. 14 D.C., and L’IMPERO AL
TEMPO DI TRAIANO IMP. 98-117 D.C.

Figure 7. Mussolini’s Marble Maps on the Via
dell’Impero. Dana Marinin, Aug. 2005.

28
map also represented a different geographical area than the other four, emphasizing
Fascist Italy’s success in Africa. The fifth map became one of the most renowned pieces
of Fascist propaganda, successfully linking Mussolini’s empire to Ancient Rome. When
he placed it in order with the other four, Mussolini directly placed himself on the same
level as Romulus, Augustus, and Trajan, three beloved leaders of Imperial Rome. The
map represented Mussolini’s proclamation of the new empire and the idea that Mussolini
was simply continuing the Roman Empire for its people. Mussolini’s Italy could be
placed on the same wall as Augustus’ and Trajan’s Empires under the guise that
Mussolini was perpetuating what they had started centuries before.
65

This circuit of Fascist intervention surrounding the Ancient Forum was one of
Mussolini’s greatest projects. Not only did it summarize the cultural concept of
Romanità and solidify the linkage between Fascist and Ancient Rome; it also altered the
layout of one of the major areas of Rome. The physical imprint of these changes is still
evident in the city today. While many of the roads have been renamed, you can still
traverse the avenues, tracing Fascist Rome through the urban environment.
The roads and buildings near the Forum Roman were not the only elements of the
city to change drastically under Mussolini. He also devoted much time, energy, and
expense to the creation of the Piazzale Augusto Imperatore (Figure 8). For this project

64
Heather Hyde Minor, “Mapping Mussolini: Ritual and Cartography in Public Art During the Second
Roman Empire,” Imago Mundi: The International Journal for the History of Cartography 51 (1999): 154.

65
The passage of time throughout the five maps covers the birth of Rome, the highest points of the Ancient
Roman Empire, and Mussolini’s Fascist Italy.

29
Mussolini chose to refinish the area around Augustus’ mausoleum, reconstruct and add in
related Augustan monuments, while also adding specifically Fascist elements.
In Ancient Rome, the area that contains the Piazzale Augusto Imperatore was part
of the Campus Martius. This low-lying flood plain held three important Augustan
monuments: the Ara Pacis or Altar of
Augustan Peace, the Horologium of
Augustus, and the Mausoleum of
Augustus. The Senate originally ordered
the Altar of Augustan Peace in BCE 13 to
celebrate Augustus’ return from a three-
year trip to Spain and Gaul; the altar and
its surrounding enclosure were both made
of white Italian marble and elaborately
carved in relief.
66
The Horologium of Augustus was an enormous sundial erected by the
emperor in 10 BCE to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the annexation of
Egypt. When Augustus took Egypt into the Roman Empire, he brought back a huge
obelisk from Heliopolis. This obelisk, standing thirty meters high, formed the gnomon of
Augustus’ Horologium.
67
The Mausoleum of Augustus was a large round tomb
constructed by the emperor in 28 BCE. This large circular building, 285 feet in diameter,

66
Claridge, Archaeological Guide, 184.

67
The Horologium was previously destroyed and therefore could not be included in the Piazzale Augusto
Imperatore.

Figure 8. The Piazzale Augusto Imperatore. Spiro
Kostof, The Third Rome: 1870 – 1950 Traffic and
Glory (Berkley: University of Californian Art Museum,
1973), 33.

30
would contain not only Augustus’ remains, but also the ashes of the rest of the imperial
family for generations. The dome of the structure was covered in earth, referencing the
ancient tumuli tombs of the Etruscan people, highlighting Augustus’ Italian heritage.
68

On October 22, 1934, Mussolini made the first symbolic strike with a pick ax and
inaugurated the Piazzale Augusto Imperatore
project (Figure 9). A huge area, over one hundred
thousand square meters, was cleared of nearby
encroaching buildings, isolating the mausoleum
from more modern structures and surrounding
roads.
69
The shell of the mausoleum had been in
use for centuries as a garden, a bullfight ring, a
concert hall, and a foundry.
70
Beyond liberating
the mausoleum from the surrounding urban
landscape, Mussolini restored it to the state of
“authentic ruin.”
71
In other words, all modern
additions and changes were removed, making the

68
Nancy H. Ramage and Andrew Ramage, Roman Art: Romulus to Constantine, Fourth Edition (Upper
Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2005), 105.

69
Ann Thomas Wilkins, “Augustus, Mussolini, and the Parallel Imagery of Empire,” in Donatello Among
the Blackshirts: History and Modernity in the Visual Culture of Fascist Italy, ed. Claudia Lazzaro and
Roger J. Crum (Ithaca: Cornell UP, 2005), 56.

70
Kirk, The Architecture of Modern Italy, 122.

71
Bondenalla, The Eternal City, 201.
Figure 9. Mussolini opens construction
around the Mausoleum of Augustus. Claudia
Lazzaro and Roger J. Crum, ed. Donatello
Among the Blackshirts: History and
Modernity in the Visual Culture of Fascist
Italy (Ithaca: Cornell UP, 2005), 87.

31
building appear as an ancient monument in the proper state of ruin.
The Duce also had the Ara Pacis reconstructed and placed not in its original
location, but in the new Piazzale Augusto Imperatore near the mausoleum. “Fragmented,
partially buried, and with remnants of its reliefs scattered, it had been compromised as a
coherent monument. Ultimately, Mussolini decided not to display the recovered
fragments in a museum setting but to reconstruct the monument as a whole.”
72
By
placing the Ara Pacis near the mausoleum, the Duce forever spatially connected two of
the most famous Augustan monuments. He placed no emphasis on historical accuracy,
instead focusing on the creation of the new piazza overall. Once the Augustan
monuments were relocated and restored, he added Fascist office buildings to outline the
square.
Four Fascist buildings frame the mausoleum and create two long facades:
Fabbricato A and B. The walls along both fabbricatos are covered in reliefs depicting
Fascist propaganda, much of which makes direct comparison between the new regime
and Augustus. These are some of the most unabashed propaganda pieces ordered by
Mussolini. The meaning of the Piazza is spelled out on these walls.
The most famous panel of the Ara Pacis, known as the Tellus Relief, portrays “a
matronly deity … [who] holds in her arms two babies who reach for her breast, while her

72
Wilkins, “Parallel Imagery,” 57.

32
lap is filled with fruit and her hair adorned with a wreath of grain and poppies. More
corn, poppies, and other plants are prominently displayed growing behind her.”
73

These same themes are continued on a long sculptural frieze across Fabbricato A.
Forty-two near-life-sized figures include shepherds tending their flocks, peasant mothers
and babies, young girls carrying baskets of fruit and grain, the hoeing and tilling of land,
the pressing of the grape, and a laborer in the midst of work.
74
These images display
Fascist ideals of proper Roman life and prosperity through the same iconography used on
the Ara Pacis. Through the use of symbolic imagery, Mussolini continued the
reinforcement of Fascist cultural ideals.
The offices of the National Social Security Administration were located on the
north side of the piazzale (Fabbricato B). A Latin inscription at the far end of the
building referred to the recent building projects – the transformation of the mausoleum
back to ancient ruin, the reconstruction of the Ara Pacis, and the emergence of new
streets and buildings in the place of the former congestion.
75
Two winged Victories hold
fasces on either side of the inscription. Above them the personification of the River Tiber
holds up Romulus and Remus while the she-wolf stands at the river’s feet; various scenes

73
Paul Zanker, The Power of Images in the Age of Augustus (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press,
1989), 172.

74
Spiro Kostof, “The Emperor and the Duce: The Planning of the Piazzale Augusto Imperatore in Rome,”
in Art and Architecture in the Service of Politics, ed. Henry A, Millon and Linda Nochlin (Cambridge,
Mass.: MIT Press, 1978), 309.

75
Painter, Mussolini’s Rome, 73-74.

33
of labor surround them.
76
Three windows are decorated with Roman and Fascist arms.
“The Roman decorations include helmets, shields, bows and arrows, and musical
instruments, while the corresponding Fascist decorations include rifles, gas masks,
artillery pieces, and contemporary uniforms.”
77
Through the use of the Latin, ancient
iconography, and juxtaposition of the Ancient and Fascist arms, Mussolini’s Fascist
propaganda accentuates the relationship between Fascist Italy and the ancient empire
under Augustus.
The Piazzale Augusto Imperatore as a whole is Fascist propaganda. Mussolini
built the square as a designed space reflective of his propagandistic needs, paying no
attention to the historical accuracy of the site. He did not recreate the area using proper
documentation or sources; he simply moved buildings as he saw fit. The mausoleum is
the only element that remains in situ. The placement of the Ara Pacis was chosen to
reside in the square because it fit neatly in the Augustan theme, not because it actually
once resided there. Furthermore, the chosen style of the Fascist relief sculptures reflects
the style of the Ara Pacis. There is no distinction made to note which elements are
historically accurate and which are newly created. This overall creates a site of
misinformation and assumed relationships. Mussolini did not care to preserve an area true
to history; he instead created the space needed for his fascist agenda.
Architectural projects were also created in accordance with larger policies. A
prime example of this was the commission for a new, modern train station. In 1925,

76
Kostof, "The Emperor and the Duce,” 304.

77
Bondenalla, The Eternal City, 202.

34
Mussolini began a program designed to update and modernize the nation’s train system.
Stations across the country were marked for upgrading; the old station in Rome was no
exception. “Instead of a new terminal outside the city however, the ministry chose to
adapt or replace the old station where it stood.”
78
Angiolo Mazzoni, a favored state
architect, was to create the new station.
79

The plan for Stazione Termini separated arrivals and departures into wings,
connected by a galleria.
80
A model of the project was even showcased at the 1939
World’s Fair in New York. To tie the more modern project into the historical city and
relate it to the Fascist landscape overall, quintessential Roman architectural techniques
were utilized. The wings contained an arcade of arches, shrinking in size away from the
center galleria. It was a modern building with a hint of classical design. The project was
a great undertaking and lasted many years, although it was ultimately put on hiatus, left
unfinished, at the outbreak of WWII.
In this particular project, Mussolini promoted the forward thinking of the Fascist
regime. Mussolini’s changes to the transportation system promoted Fascist power by
showing where it could take Italy in the future, while still paying homage to the past. At
Termini, Ancient Roman architectural standards were employed to transform an old
inefficient station into a new, upgraded, modern Fascist construct. This shows how

78
Kirk, The Architecture of Modern Italy, 105.

79
Mazzoni was a prolific architect for the state and was responsible for a bevy of Fascist buildings. See:
Mazzoni, Angiolo. Angiolo Mazzoni, 1894-1979: architetto nell'Italia tra le due guerre: Galleria comunale
d'arte moderna, Bologna, 20 ottobre 1984-3 gennaio 1985. Bologna : Grafis Edizioni, 1984.

80
Kirk, The Architecture of Modern Italy, 105.

35
Mussolini and Fascism could continue to reassert the glory of Ancient Rome into the
future.
Mussolini’s promotion of Fascism through Romanità pushed his policies into
physical places that held intimate relationships with the past. As part of his larger Fascist
landscape, areas of historical imminence were altered and filled with fascist elements.
Much of the current built environment therefore took on a double meaning – the one it
held before Mussolini and the one of his construction. However, Mussolini was not
content to simply alter existing places; he wanted to place his own Fascist mark on the
landscape of Rome.
New Construction
The new projects ordered by Mussolini and his regime would be purely Fascist, in
creation and execution. Still, the goal of asserting the Fascist cultural ideal on the Italian
people was always put in play. Even his new construction felt the grip of Romanità and
were influenced by the style and methods of Ancient Rome. With the idea of homage in
hand, Fascist architecture was placed within the fabric of Rome as a way to thoroughly
assert the regime’s place in Italian history and power.
Following the traditions of Rome’s great emperors, Mussolini built his own
forum. “The forum, or foro, suggested once again Mussolini’s imperial image, for only
emperors had forums built and named after them.”
81
By entitling this area as a forum,
Mussolini symbolically claimed himself an emperor and linked his rule to the great

81
Painter, Mussolini’s Rome, 40.

36
ancient emperors before him. The purpose behind his forum was to provide the youth of
Rome an area to exercise: it contained pools and open areas to exercise and maintain
proper Fascist athleticism.
In 1936, after the buildings were completed, the Ponte Duca d’Aosta (the Duke of
Aosta Bridge) was created as an entranceway from the east bank of the river. It is a
single span of stone, distinguished by its square piers, which are decorated with reliefs of
fighting scenes.
82
After crossing the bridge, one immediately encounters the seventeen-
meter high obelisk (Figure 10).
83
DUX, Latin
for Duce, was inscribed on the base of the
obelisk, while MUSSOLINI ran vertically on
the shaft. Just beyond the obelisk a large
walkway, or the Piazzale dell’Impero, is
covered in mosaics and stretches toward the
large Stadio Mussolini (today the Stadio dei
Marmi). The stadium is sunk into the ground
and lined with sculptures of overdeveloped
athletes, mimicking the ancient style of heroic
statues.
84
Although additions and alterations

82
Christopher Woodward, The Buildings of Europe: Rome (Manchester: Manchester UP, 1995), 149.

83
Kostof, The Third Rome, 72.

84
Woodward, The Buildings of Europe, 141.

Figure 10. Mussolini’s obelisk in the Foro Italico.
Dana Marinin, Aug. 2005

37
have taken place in the Foro Mussolini, it still remains a major monument of Mussolini’s
Rome.
85

Clearly a place promoting the fascist ideal of athleticism and physical fitness,
Mussolini also viewed his forum as a platform to promote his overall Fascist ideology.
The floor of the forum is covered in mosaics, constructed in the ancient Roman style.
Many scenes of Fascist glory are depicted. Youths are pictured around the word “Duce”
giving the fascist salute. A map of the Via del Mare area and its ancient sites recalls
Mussolini’s triumphs in city planning (Figure 11). Across from that sits another map of
the Foro Mussolini itself. Elsewhere, a large lion claws a globe on which Italy, Libya,
and Ethiopia are highlighted, representing the Fascist empire’s spread into Africa.
86

Mussolini’s own words are immortalized – his speech declaring victory over Ethiopia is
featured in the center while his popular sayings, such as “molti nemici, molto onore” are

85
Painter, Mussolini’s Rome, 40.

86
Minor, “Mapping Mussolini,” 160.

Figure 12. Word mosaic, Foro Italico. Dana
Marinin, Aug. 2005
Figure 11. Forum Boarium Mosiac, Foro Italico.
Dana Marinin, Aug. 2005.

38
scattered throughout (Figure 12).
87
The mosaic floor is flanked on either side with white
marble pylons, detailing Fascist history and triumphs with inscriptions.
88

While ancient artistic methods and techniques were replicated in the Foro
Mussolini, the site was created from scratch to promote Fascist cultural ideal and
reinforce the Duce’s place in power. This was the first original Fascist designed area
placed in the urban landscape of Rome. However, Mussolini was far from satisfied. He
wanted to create a brand new Fascist core in the city; a new modern designed center
completely separate from the existing parts of Rome.
The Esposizione Universale di Roma (EUR) was designed with this goal in mind.
Rome was scheduled to host the World’s Fair in 1941. The EUR would also serve as the
perfect host venue to show the accomplishments of Mussolini and his Fascist regime on
an international stage.
The date of the fair was changed to 1942 to coincide with the Ventennale: the
twentieth anniversary of the March on Rome.
89
Under the supervision of head planner
Marcello Piacentini, the architects looked for an open area outside the city to construct
their World Fair complex. The overall design scheme still emphasized ancient Rome, but
as the precursor to Fascist power. “The EUR was to be the monumental center of
Mussolini’s new Rome, the modern capital of the empire and of the new civilization.”
90

87
“Many Enemies, Much Honor.” Bondenalla, The Eternal City, 193.

88
Woodward, The Buildings of Europe, 140.

89
Kirk, The Architecture of Modern Italy, 133.

90
Emilio Gentile, The Sacralization of Politics in Fascist Italy (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard UP, 1996), 129.

39
Here the regime’s current greatness would be highlighted. “[...] The buildings were to be
permanent constructions that would serve after the fair’s closure as the nucleus of a new
development.”
91
Although the Fascist state always looked to Imperial Rome, the current
regime was still strong and powerful on its own. The EUR represented this ability of the
Fascist government to stand on its own and move the country forward.
One of the most prominent buildings in the EUR is the Palazzo della Civilità
Italiana (The Palace of Italian Civilization). This monumental building is better known
as the Square Coliseum or Colosseo Quadrato (Figure 13). “Here too they expressed a
Romanità in six floors of identical arches sharply cut out of smooth travertine surfaces
with statues and inscriptions.”
92
The entire building was dedicated to great men, as
inscribed on the façade: VN POPOLO DI POETI DI ARTISTI DI EROI DI SANTI DI
PENSATORI DI SCIENZIATI DI NAVIGATORI DI TRASMIGRATORI (a people of
poets, artists, heroes, saints, thinkers, scientists, navigators, transmigrators).
93
“Displayed
on the walls of this Fascist Pantheon, the public could venerate the heroes of Italian
civilization, from Caesar … to Mussolini.”
94

91
Kirk, The Architecture of Modern Italy, 133.

92
Ibid., 135.

93
It is also important to note the consistency of inscription form utilized by the fascists. In most projects –
the marble maps, the Foro Mussolini, and here – the inscriptions all appear in Italian but take on the look of
the Latin inscriptions commonly found on ancient monuments.

94
Gentile, The Sacralization of Politics, 131.

40

Next to the Colosseo Quadrato, the EUR’s headquarters building, the Palazzo
degli Uffici dell’ Esposizione Universale di Roma, was built. Inside the entrance, a large
sculpted marble tablet contains clear Fascist propaganda portraying the history of the
building of Rome. The tablet begins at the ceiling with Romulus and Remus and the
founding of the Rome. It continues down the wall through history, marking the Roman
Empire, the papacy and St. Peter’s, Garibaldi and unification, until it reaches the door.
The culminating scene depicts the Duce in full Fascist glory – riding a horse, raising his
hand in Fascist salute. “This remarkable piece survives to this day as a example of fascist
Romanità with Mussolini the triumphant embodiment of Roman and Italian history.”
95

95
Painter, Mussolini’s Rome, 131.

Figure 13. The Square Coliseum. Dana Marinin, Aug. 2005.

41
Mussolini depicts himself as the next greater builder of Rome in the headquarters of his
Fascist complex, built from scratch in the next great Roman Empire by its next great
emperor.
The overall theme of the EUR reflected Mussolini’s cultural policies and his
obsession with Ancient Rome. The design had an “eclectic approach that allowed for the
traditional and academic styles that linked the modern with Italy’s and Rome’s past.”
96

His new creations, some of the most modern architecture Rome had seen at that point,
still called to the past and contained elements of traditional Rome. Mussolini showed his
regime was capable of building grand, original structures on its own while respectfully
honoring the traditions of the ancient empire he was recreating. Yet again, the principle
of marrying the Fascist and the ancient lay in the depth of the project’s inspiration.
Temporary Exhibits
The final technique Mussolini exercised to shape his fascist landscape was the
temporary exhibit. These designed displays of fascist cultural ideals were built into the
landscape, but only for a short amount of time. They were not intended to last for future
generations, but instead served as a way to promote fascist ideas in flashy way and
expose as many Italians as possible to Mussolini’s propaganda.
The Mostra della Rivoluzione Fascista (MRF), the Exhibit of the Fascist
Revolution, was the highlight of the Decennale. “It was … the most accomplished and
suggestive sculptural and figurative synthesis of the regime’s mythic and symbolic

96
Painter, Mussolini’s Rome, 127.

42
universe.”
97
This exhibit was built to publically display the history of the Fascist
Regime, as Mussolini told it (Figure 14).
The exhibit opened on October 28, 1932 in the Palazzo delle Esposizioni on the
Via Nazionale. The location, linked spatially to Termini, placed the exhibit in a heavily
populated area, near the Fascist headquarters. To create the physical presence of the
exhibit Mussolini approved a plan by Adalberto Libera and Mario De Renzi to alter the
current palazzo with a temporary structure.
98
The
outside façade was marked by a massive red square,
evoking the Roman tradition of Pompeian red.
99
The
square was surrounded by “[…] grey wings and
interrupted by four twenty-five-meter fasci
fabricated of riveted sheets of oxidized copper.”
100

Two large Xs also graced the façade, marking the
ten years of Fascist control.
The exhibit space itself was also a carefully
designed construct. “Nothing illustrates better
than the Mostra della Rivoluzione Fascista the

97
Gentile, The Sacralization of Politics, 110.

98
Diane Yvonne Ghirado, “Architects, Exhibitions, and the Politics of Culture in Fascist Italy,” Journal of
Architectural Education 45, no. 2 (February 1992): 68.

99
Gentile, The Sacralization of Politics, 112.

100
Ghirado, “Architects, Exhibitions and the Politics of Culture in Fascist Italy,” 68.

Figure 14. The façade of the Mostra della
Rivoluzione Fascista. Claudia Lazzaro and
Roger J. Crum, ed. Donatello Among the
Blackshirts: History and Modernity in the
Visual Culture of Fascist Italy. (Ithaca:
Cornell UP, 2005), 18.

43
way in which the regime created new settings and new events to convey its message.”
101

The structure was divided into a series of rooms, creating a “[…] carefully calibrated
sequence of events.”
102
As visitors traversed the exhibit, they witnessed a choreographed
story told through displayed artifacts and artistically designed spaces. The first rooms (A-
Q) illustrated the history of Fascist Rome chronologically, from the foundations of the
regime in 1914 to the 1922 March on Rome.
103
The other rooms, R-U, highlighted
specific topics: the Hall of Honor, the Gallery of the Fasces, the Hall of Mussolini, and
finally the Shrine of Martyrs.
The surrounding built environment of the rooms was just as important as the
artifacts housed within them. Mussolini hired architects and painters to produce these
spaces; they incorporated propaganda slogans and Fascist symbols into their designs to
inform the viewer of the tone and purpose of each room. The space was designed with
the participant in mind – to directly influence their feelings and experiences within the
exhibit.
104

The Mostra della Rivoluzione Fascista was a multi-faceted sensory experience
that portrayed a particular history lesson designed by the regime. Historical accuracy was
trumped by propaganda and sensationalism. “Reactions were on all counts enthusiastic.

101
Painter, Mussolini’s Rome, 26.

102
Ghirardo, “Architects, Exhibitions and the Politics of Culture in Fascist Italy,” 68.

103
Claudio Fogu, “To Make History Present,” in Donatello Among the Blackshirts: History and Modernity
in the Visual Culture of Fascist Italy, ed. Claudia Lazzaro and Roger J. Crum, (Ithaca: Cornell UP, 2005),
41.

104
Ghirardo, “Architects, Exhibitions and the Politics of Culture in Fascist Italy,” 68.

44
Visitors flocked like pilgrims from all parts of the country, some on their first trip to the
capital, to be photographed in rooms of their choice or to participate in the revolving
honor guard under the gigantic fasces.”
105
It was so popular it remained opened long
after its anticipated six month run, finally closing its doors in October 1934. Through the
MRF, Mussolini was able to easily spread his carefully constructed history and Fascist
messages to the masses.
Three years later, in the same space, Mussolini opened another temporary exhibit,
this time in honor of 200
th
anniversary of Emperor Augustus (Figure 15). Again,
Mussolini used the space and opportunity to tell his version of history. This huge
exhibition housed three thousand casts of ancient statues, portraits, reliefs, and
inscriptions; two hundred models of Roman architecture and engineering; a huge model
of the city of Rome in Constantine’s time; models of military machines; and a life-size
atrium house.
106
The exhibition contained large maps of the Roman Empire, didactic
panels, and quotations from famous Italians, from Livy to Dante to Mussolini himself.
107

The exhibition’s main floor was divided into rooms, similar to the Mostra della
Rivoluzione Fascista, organized according to chronology. Beyond honoring Augustus,

105
Kirk, The Architecture of Modern Italy, 92.

106
Friedemann Scriba, “The Sacralization of the Roman Past in Mussolini’s Italy: Erudition, Aesthetics,
and Religion in the Exhibition of Augustus’ Bimillenary, 1937 – 1938,” Storia della Storiografia 30
(1996): 21.

107
Ibid.

45
“the exhibition also intended to illustrate the correspondence and continuity between
Roman past and Fascist present,”
108
another public expression of Romanità.
The main floor was completed with a large room entitled “The Eternity of the
Idea of Rome and the Renaissance of Romanità in Fascism,” connecting all the
chronological historical rooms with
Mussolini’s Fascist Italy. The floor
above the rooms showcased the
everyday lives of Romans, including
various professions and religion; the
bottom floor was devoted to urban life:
streets, architecture, and
engineering.
109
The various floors
illustrated the larger link between
Modern and Ancient Roman
civilizations as a whole.
When the exhibit closed, it was not removed from the Fascist landscape
completely. Instead, the artifacts created for it were transferred to the Museo della
Civilità Romana (the Museum of Roman Civilization), located in the EUR district. Also
housed at this museum was the Modella Plastico: a large model of Rome in the time of
Constantine. Mussolini did not want anyone to forget the lessons learned from his latest

108
Lazzaro, “Forging a Visible Fascist Nation,” 22.

109
Scriba, “The Sacralization of the Roman Past,” 21.
Figure 15. The façade of the Mostra Augustae della
Romanità. Claudia Lazzaro and Roger J. Crum, eds.
Donatello Among the Blackshirts: History and Modernity in
the Visual Cultur of Fascist Italy. (Ithaca: Cornell UP,
2005), 87.

46
temporary exhibit. By placing the artifacts on permanent display in the Fascist city
center, Italians were constantly reminded of the history created by Mussolini. This was
the history shaping their Fascist identity and the changing the city around them.
As leader of Italy, Mussolini spent incredible resources and time altering the
landscape of Rome. In the process of creating a Fascist cultural ideology, Mussolini also
carefully constructed a Fascist landscape. At every level, Fascism was inserted into the
daily lives of Romans – the symbols they saw, the roads they traversed, and the exhibits
they visited – all served the larger propaganda purpose for Mussolini. While in power,
Mussolini worked to make the city and Italian culture as Fascist as possible. The result
was an undeniable change to the urban framework and life of Romans. But Mussolini,
looking to make Fascist Italy a world power, would not settle on simply changing the
immediate space around him. He would look much further for more ways to promote
Fascist Italy – a move that would ultimately cost him everything.

47
Chapter 3: Foreign Policy
While his programs and projects continued to develop a Fascist identity at home
in Rome, Mussolini turned his attention to increasing Italy’s international prestige.
110
It
was time to expand his Roman Empire to foreign soil and move Italy into the future as a
competing European power.
Mussolini turned first to Africa, site of Ancient Roman provinces and current
European colonies. Like his domestic policies, Mussolini used Ancient Rome as a
rationale for entering military operations in Africa. Between 264 and 146 BCE, the
Romans waged three Punic Wars in an attempt to quell the Carthaginian Empire, which
stretched from southern Spain to North Africa and the western side of Sicily. Victory in
the First Punic War gave the Italians control of western Sicily. Rome’s eventual hard
fought victory over Carthage brought large landholdings to Roman power, including:
Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, Gaul, and North Africa.
111

The Punic Wars showed the true ability of Rome to conquer and control
territories. Imperialism continued to spread until the early second century CE, when the
empire reached its geographical peak under the emperor Trajan. The Punic Wars were
critical because they enabled Ancient Rome to expand its territory and influence and
establish itself as the dominant Mediterranean power.
With the ancient example as impetus, Mussolini looked to Africa as a means to
increase Italy’s international presence under Fascism (Figure 16). The other great

110
Duggan, A Concise History of Italy, 233.

111
Adrian Goldsworthy, The Punic Wars (London: Cassell & Co., 2000), 357.

48
European powers, such as Britain, France, and Belgium, had immense colonial holdings
in Africa. To ensure its place in global politics, Italy needed to acquire colonies there as
well. Furthermore, Mussolini had to prove he was capable of leading his country on the
international stage.
Libya
Mussolini first turned his attention to Libya, which was already locked in a
longstanding battle with Italy. Long before Mussolini,
at the close of the nineteenth century, Italy was looking
to expand into Africa. By then, Europeans had
occupied most of the continent; Libya remained as one
of the few unclaimed territories.
112
In an effort to take
Libya and forge a place in Africa, the Italian
government contrived a crisis with Turkey, declared
war, and invaded.
From this, the first Italo-Turkish war, Italy
gained the Ottoman provinces of Tripolitania and
Cyrenaica. Although in 1912 an official treaty
formally granted Italy control of these provinces, the
Italians faced opposition from local Libyans and

112
Ronald Bruce St. John, Historical Dictionary of Libya, Third Edition, (Lanham: Scarecrow Press, 1998),
138.

Figure 16. Italy enters Africa. Peter
Bondanella, The Eternal City: Roman
Images in the Modern World (Chapel
Hill: University of North Carolina
Press, 1987), 185.

49
remained confined to the coast.
113
The Italians’ desire for colonial land was hardly
satisfied. The years between Italy’s first annexation of Libya and Fascist control, 1912 –
1922, were spent trying to consolidate more Libyan land for Italy. During this interim
period, known as the Period of Accords, the Italian governments before Mussolini
remained largely unsuccessful in establishing complete Italian control in Libya.
Once in power, Mussolini wasted no time consolidating Libya for the Italians. In
1923, Italy cancelled all accords and agreements with the various factions in Libya and
began its reconquest.
114
Slowly and painfully, against much resistance, Italy came to
pacify Libya. In 1931, Mussolini dropped the original Turkish names of the area and
called it collectively Libya, officially resurrecting the name that Diocletian had applied
nearly 1,500 years earlier.
115

By finally conquering Libya, Mussolini reclaimed land for Italy, placed Italy on
the world stage, and finally put to end a long waged and embarrassing conflict. A 1932
postage stamp celebrated Italy’s return to Africa. A worker was shown shoveling among
Roman ruins in front of an African backdrop; the caption read, “Ritornando dove già
fummo” (Returning where we already were).
116

113
Helen Chapin Metz, Libya: A Country Study (Washington D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1987), 24.

114
St. John, Historical Dictionary of Libya, 222.

115
Metz, Libya: A Country Study, 29.

116
Falasca-Zamponi, Fascist Spectacle, 93.

50
Ethiopia
Continuing his quest for international prestige, Mussolini joined forces with Britain in
1926 to launch a commercial conquest of Ethiopia. However, when the Ethiopian leaders
protested to the League of Nations, British public opinion turned negative and the country
pulled out of the operation. Mussolini continued, ignoring the political backlash and
struck the Italo-Ethiopian Treaty of 1928, promising twenty years of friendship. But,
within two years, Mussolini and Italy broke terms with the treaty. Ethiopians drew up
arms in protest; Italians flooded the area with troops. Italy was going to war.
The 1935 invasion was slow and rough, meeting heavy resistance from the
Ethiopians. Eventually the Italians claimed victory, mainly due to the superiority of
Italian weaponry and heavy artillery. The Ethiopians never formally surrendered, but
after the Italians marched on the capital, Addis Ababa, on May 5, 1936, the conflict was
over.
Mussolini depicted the war in Ethiopia as Fascism at its finest: Fascist Italian
legions would be modern, efficient, pitiless, and unstoppable.
117
After announcing
victory in Ethiopia, Mussolini proclaimed his Fascist empire:
Italy at last has her empire. It is a fascist empire because it
bears the indestructible sign of the will and power of the
lictors and fasces of Rome […]. This is in the tradition of
Rome which, after having conquered, associated the
conquered with people in her fate. … The Italian people
have created with their blood an empire. They will render
it fertile and fruitful with their work. They will defend it
against anyone with their weapons. In this supreme

117
Bosworth, Mussolini’s Italy, 367.

51
certainty, lift your flags, your swords, your hearts to salute
the reappearance after fifteen centuries of an empire on the
fateful hills of Rome.
118

The moments after this victory would be Mussolini’s finest. His popularity
soared; enormous crowds cheered him on underneath the balcony overlooking the Piazza
Venezia. His projects at home and abroad were lauded; it appeared Fascism would truly
bring Italy power and glory. But Fascism’s popularity and victory were to be short lived.
The military operations had brought with them growing economic hardships and
Mussolini’s foray into Ethiopia disenchanted other European powers. Under the swell of
recent victory, Mussolini pressed on, moving Italy into the middle of the growing
tensions in Europe.
Hitler and World War II
Unlike the rest of Europe, German Leader Adolf Hitler supported and recognized
the Italian victory in Ethiopia. Thankful for the support, Mussolini forged a political
friendship with Hitler and Germany, called the Rome-Berlin Axis (Figure 17). Later,
after Mussolini supported Germany in their involvement in the Spanish Civil War, the
two countries officially declared their alliance under the Pact of Steel. As Mussolini
stated during a visit to Germany, the two countries would “march together right to the
end.”
119

118
Arnaldo Cortesi, “Italy Annexes Ethiopia; King Becomes Emperor and Badoglio Viceroy,” New York
Times, May 10, 1936, sec. 1A.

119
Duggan, A Concise History of Italy, 234.

52

With a war imminently on the horizon in Europe, Italy had chosen its side,
officially entering World War II on June 10, 1940 as Germany’s first-ally. As R.J.
Bosworth argues, after the Nazi victories in Norway and France, German victory seemed
apparent and Mussolini had no choice but to side with the victor in order to maintain
Italy’s role as a great power.
120

But, Mussolini was not willing sit as first-ally; he wanted to prove the Italian’s
power and role in the axis. In 1939, when the world’s focus turned to Hitler’s campaign
in Czechoslovakia, Mussolini quietly invaded Albania across the Adriatic Sea. Although
met with resistance, the Italians were victorious and took control of the country. Fresh
with confidence from this victory and his official allegiance to Germany, Mussolini
moved to quickly invade Greece in 1940. This move would turn out to be one of

120
Bosworth, Mussolini’s Italy, 457.
Figure 17. Mussolini and Hitler stand on the Altar of the Fatherland in Rome. George
Holmes, ed. The Oxford Illustrated History of Italy (Oxford UP, 1997), 284.

53
Mussolini’s greatest missteps. The counter attack by Greek soldiers was strong and put
the Italians on retreat. Mussolini was forced to appeal to Hitler for aid and Germans took
over the assault. Mussolini’s attempt to assert Italian power had systematically
backfired; Italy now appeared to be an absolute inferior to Germany.
121
Outwardly, the
setback to Italy was minimized on the world scale. Nazi Germany, not wanting to be
associated with any type of failure, even that of the Italians’, camouflaged the loss within
larger Axis victory propaganda. However, at home on Italian soil, the loss was much
more apparent.
Mussolini and his Fascist party struggled to maintain the popularity they enjoyed
after the Ethiopian victory. The country was suffering under the war economically and
physically. War was expensive and Italians were faced with rations and hunger, but no
victory. In the countryside, bombing raids were common. To the people, the Fascist
government appeared subservient to the Germans and incapable of success. World War
II alienated Mussolini from his people; defeatism was gaining momentum.
122

The decisive downward turn of public opinion came in July of 1943. Allied
troops invaded Sicily and again the Germans were forced to step in and save the Italians
from defeat. Although the allies did not claim victory, they did push many Germans and
Italians off the island and onto the Italian mainland. With this contest came heavy aerial
bombing of Rome. Thanks to these events, popular support of the war waned even more.

121
Bosworth, Mussolini’s Italy, 466-67.

122
Duggan, A Concise History of Italy, 238.

54
War killed the popularity and strength of Fascism. Something had to be done to ensure
the survival of the Italian state.
Mussolini’s First Fall
Late in the evening of July 24, 1943 the Fascist Grand Council, a leadership body
created by Mussolini, met to decide a course of action. Military defeat seemed imminent
and the Italian leaders were looking to ensure their country was not conquered. The
King, albeit weak, still maintained constitutional power to dismiss Mussolini and choose
a successor; many of the leading Fascists conceded it was the only option to salvage the
war.
123
A motion was approved to remove Mussolini’s from power.
The next day, Mussolini met with the King. He was promptly removed from
power and arrested. Mussolini was sent to the island of Ponza in exile while King Victor
Emmanuel III and the new Prime Minister, Pietro Badoglio took control in Italy.
Public opinion after his removal showed no sign of any displeasure, proving
solidly the Fascist grip on the people was not as strong as often publically declared. There
was no crisis, no upheaval.
124
War, as it turned out, had been the ultimate test of Fascist
power – and it had failed.
For the next forty-five days the Badoglio government ruled Italy. Publicly Italy
remained loyal to the Germans, but in actuality the new government began secret
negotiations with the allies. “The government’s aim was to humor the Germans until an

123
Duggan, A Concise History of Italy, 238.

124
Philip Morgan, The Fall of Mussolini: Italy, the Italians, and the Second World War (Oxford: Oxford
UP, 2007), 29.

55
armistice had been signed, quickly change sides, and then with allied help, seize
Rome.”
125
By the time it was publically announced, the first allied forces were already
on the Italian peninsula.
Upon the official announcement of Italy’s realignment with the Allies, chaos,
once happily avoided after the dismissal of Mussolini, swept through the public. In the
midst of the Italian upheaval Badoglio and the King fled Rome, leaving the citizens with
no leaders and the Italian Army with no orders.
126
Meanwhile, while the Bodoglio
government was busy negotiating with the Allies, the Germans were busy fortifying their
holds in Italy – they increased their troops and control over the infrastructure. Upon the
abdication of leaders in Rome, Hitler swiftly moved his troops from the north to Rome,
occupying the capital by force on September 11, 1943.
127

In this period of anarchy and heavy German occupation, the Allies were still
hesitant to throw their full support toward the Italians. But the chaos of the change of
allegiance, and the German occupation of the Rome proved the Italian front was a vital
fight for the Allies. They had no choice but to start their move up the peninsula, toward
the capital. Whether or not Italy was a true ally was not the number one concern, the
Allies had to take Rome back from the grasp of Hitler. Italy finally declared war on Nazi
Germany on October 13, 1943. The Allies and Italians had one combined goal, remove
the Nazis from Italy and defeat Hitler.

125
Duggan, A Concise History of Italy, 240.

126
Bosworth, Mussolini’s Italy, 496.

127
Harry Hearder, Italy: A Short History, 2
nd
Edition (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2002), 244.

56
Mussolini Returns
As part of his plan to overtake Italy, Hitler plucked Mussolini out of exile and
placed him as puppet leader of a new Fascist state, the Repubblica Sociale Italiana (RSI)
in the German controlled area of northern Italy.
128
After Mussolini’s fall, “the neutral
countries started to bend their neutrality away from the Axis as a result of what they
interpreted as its serious weakening.
129
Bringing Mussolini out of exile and returning
him to Italy was a power play by Hitler. Mussolini escaped exile only because the move
benefited Hitler.
As Mussolini stepped back into a leadership role, the fighting intensified. The
Germans were moving down the Italian peninsula decisively and fervently. Meanwhile,
the Allies had begun their own offensive from the south. “Italy was […] being invaded
and divided by not one but two occupying armies.”
130
Aerial bombings were constant
and the Italian countryside was ravaged; people were exhausted, displaced and weary;
food was rationed – war was at their front doors.
In the south the Allies began to gain control and the city of Naples successfully
routed the Germans. Many Italian troops in the south organized alongside the Allies and
fought against the RSI and the Germans. But the push from the south was slow and
painful; “[…] the Allies dragged what Churchill called the ‘hot rake of war’ up the Italian

128
The Italian Social Republic, also known as the Republic of Salo.

129
Morgan, Fall of Mussolini, 33.

130
Ibid., 3.

57
peninsula.”
131
They were met with constant, strong German opposition. The Italians
were becoming increasingly impatient for liberation. Furthermore, as the RSI lumbered
along in the north, it failed to provide basic services for the people and to even attempt to
rid the homeland of foreign control.
The Italian Resistance Movement
Out of complete frustration and lack of leadership, the Italian Resistance
movement was born. Originally the Resistance was composed of independent partisan
groups of Italian citizens. Eventually, after the armistice, three main groups took the
lead: the Comitato di Liberazione Nazionale, the Italian Socialist Party, and the Patito
d’Azione. These three groups, combined with other Allied supporters, fought against the
RSI and Germans in Italy during occupation. They relied heavily on sabotage, guerilla
warfare, vocational strikes and propaganda. The vendetta strongly resembled a civil war
as well as war of liberation.
132

One of the most infamous acts of resistance occurred on March 23, 1944.
Partisan members attacked a troop of German policemen as they patrolled through Rome.
An explosive device was hidden in a cart and pushed into the path of the troops, killing
thirty-three Germans.
The Germans immediately sought revenge; an order was made for the execution
of ten Italians for every German policeman killed. By a clerical mistake, 335 Italian
hostages were chosen – civilians, prisoners of war, previously captured Resistance

131
Hearder, Italy: A Short History, 246.

132
Duggan, A Concise History of Italy, 241.

58
members, Jews, and Roman prisoners. The day after the attack, the selected victims were
led to the quarries of Pozzolana, near the Via Ardeatine, in a rural suburb of Rome. In
groups of five, the Italians were brutally executed inside the caves. Afterwards, the caves
were closed with explosives to conceal the vicious act. The victims remained buried until
the liberation of Rome, when the bodies were discovered, exhumed, and given proper
burial by the Allies.
As the Allies fought to secure the south, the Resistance worked to end the
Germans’ hold on the north. Eventually the rebellion would lead to the formation of
several provisional partisan governments throughout the northern part of Italy. Although
they gained some success and liberated a few cities, the Germans maintained a strong
hold on the North.
Allied Control, The End of World War II, and the Second Fall of Mussolini
The Germans had set a series of defensive lines across Italy; some were designed
to slow the moving Allied offense, while others were created to stop the advancement
completely. The intricately designed defensive blocks of the Germans were difficult to
traverse; it took a series of major offenses in the first months of 1944 to push the Allies
northward. Eventually the Allies were successful, the Germans abandoned Rome and the
Unites States took possession of the capital on June 4, 1944.
Eventually allied troops entered northern Italy from the Adriatic Sea and gained
control of the major northern Italian cities of Ferrara, Bologna, and Verona. Shortly
before surrendering completely and ending WWII, Germany and RSI forces relinquished
control in northern Italy on May 2, 1945.

59
As the Allies gained ground in Italy, a decrepit and ill Mussolini made an attempt
to escape, his only chance at surviving the insurgence. While on retreat, Mussolini and
his mistress, Clare Petacci, were stopped and identified by partisans near the village of
Dongo, on Lake Como. Dressed as a common German soldier, his face, once plastered in
Fascist propaganda all over the country, quickly gave him away.
The next day, Mussolini, Petacci, and their entourage of RSI officials were
executed. Their bodies were
subsequently moved to Milan where
they were unceremoniously dumped in
the Piazzo Loreto, renamed Piazza
Quindici Martiri for the fifteen anti-
fascists executed there. The bodies
were then subjected to persecutions –
they were kicked, spit on, and shot.
Afterwards, the bodies were hung on
an Esso gas station by meat hooks (Figure 18). The reign of Mussolini was over.

Figure 18. The body of Mussolini (far left) displayed in
Milan, 1945. Philip Morgan, The Fall of Mussolini: Italy,
the Italians, and the Second World War (Oxford: Oxford
UP, 2007), 225.

60
Chapter 4: Erasing Mussolini
After the fall of Mussolini and Fascism, the city of Rome remained largely how
he left it. The city, thanks to its close proximity to the Vatican, had been spared of the
heavy bombing other European urban centers had experienced. The people of Rome
were faced with task of dealing with the physical remnants of their former Duce.
While in power, Mussolini himself had become a symbol of Fascism. His
propaganda schemes often featured his likeness or his words, as if he was presenting a
deified persona.
133
When Fascism failed, Mussolini the symbol transformed into
Mussolini the scapegoat. The majority of the population blamed Mussolini for Italy’s
downfall and military failures; even Winston Churchill publically denounced him.
134
The
immediate post war reaction was to rid the landscape of any direct reference to
Mussolini.
The first reactionary incident was Mussolini’s execution and subsequent display
of his corpse. “The displaying of Mussolini’s body and those of the others shot with him,
was a quite deliberate act.”
135
The bodies were displayed as a physical representation of
the end of Fascism. He was visited by thousands of citizens, a tangible experience of
removing their association with the leader.

133
R. J. B. Bosworth, The Italian Dictatorship: Problems and Perspectives in the Interpretation of
Mussolini and Fascism (London: Arnold, 1998), 63.

134
MacGregor Knox, “Fascism: Ideology, Foreign Policy, and War,” in The Short Oxford History of Italy:
Liberal and Fascist Italy 1900 – 1945 ed. Adrian Lyttelton (Oxford: Oxford UP, 2002), 137.

135
Morgan, Fall of Mussolini, 224.

61
Once Mussolini the man was removed, the Italian people shifted their focus to
removing his presence in the built environment, especially that of Rome. The road
circuits he built were too valuable for the city to destroy. Instead, they were stripped of
their Fascist names to remove any association with the fallen leader. The people of Rome
also destroyed elements that specifically mentioned him or contained his likeness.
The fifth marble map on the Via dell’Impero, which depicted Mussolini’s New
Roman Empire, was removed from the wall and disappeared. Fifty-three years later it
was rediscovered in pieces, defaced with red paint, in the basement of the Theatre of
Marcellus (Figure 19).
136
The other four maps still remain in place today, with no
mention of who created them or why they are in that particular location. The only hint of
Mussolini is a slight shadow on the brick
façade where his map formerly hung.
The grandiose relief sculpture in
the entranceway of the Square Coliseum
in the EUR complex was also altered
after Mussolini’s fall. The final scene of
the sculpture depicts a triumphant
Mussolini perched on a horse. After his
death, the figure lost its head. No other
piece of the artwork was damaged or
altered, just the figure of Mussolini. These small acts of removal were easy to execute

136
Minor, “Mapping Mussolini,” 153.
Figure 19. The broken and defaced remnants of
Mussolini’s fifth marble map. Heather Hyde Minor,
“Mapping Mussolini: Ritual and Cartography in Public
Art during the Second Roman Empire.” Imago Mundi:
The International Journal for the History of
Cartography 51 (1999): 157.

62
and gave the people an immediate feeling of separation from Mussolini and the Fascist
rule of Italy. But they could not completely erase Italy’s role in the war and the people’s
involvement under Mussolini’s leadership. The history of Fascist Italy is not an easy
history for the Italian people to remember or come to terms with. Yet throughout their
capital city, there are physical reminders of this uneasy history. Parts of the city are still
undeniably “Mussolini.”
Mussolini in the Built Environment
Of all Mussolini’s urban alterations, three areas of the city felt his hand the most:
the Foro Mussolini, the Piazzale Augusto Imperatore, and Termini Station. These three
sections of Rome were completely changed under Mussolini and undeniably reflected his
time in power. At the end of the war, the people of Rome had to find some way to come
to terms with this period of history and the mark it left on their built environment. In
three specific cases, they employed three different techniques to erase the presence of
Mussolini.
Foro Mussolini
The area of the city most intertwined with Mussolini and Fascist Rome is the Foro
Mussolini. This is a place of unabashed Fascist propaganda and promotion of Mussolini
as leader. Surprisingly, the Foro Mussolini did not meet the same fate as his marble map
or relief figure. Here, the people of Rome removed Mussolini by ignoring him and
replacing the overall purpose of the place.
Directly after the war, an angry mob did approach the forum with the intent to
destroy it, specifically calling for the demolition of the large obelisk baring his title.

63
However, at that time, Rome was still under Allied occupation and U.S. soldiers had set
up a rest camp on the grounds of the forum. To protect themselves, the soldiers stopped
the mob and unwittingly protected Mussolini’s forum from destruction.
137

After the Allies disbanded, the forum still remained untouched. By then, Italy
was struggling economically and did not have the means to destroy and rebuild such an
expanse of city. Furthermore, the forum itself was only one element of a larger complex.
Surrounding it, the stadium and pools were still utilized and popular with the Roman
people.
From then on, the focus of the complex became athletics and physical fitness.
This theme was solidified when Rome hosted the 1960 Olympic games and added a large
Olympic Stadium next to the existing
Stadio dei Marmi (Figure 20). The site
would go on to host the 1990 World
Cup and the 2009 FINA World
Swimming Championships. It
currently serves as home field for
Rome’s two soccer teams.
Over time the people of Rome
have continually ignored the presence

137
Painter, Mussolini’s Rome, 153.
Figure 20. Olympic Stadium. You can see Foro Italico in
the bottom left. www.stadiumguide.com/olympic2.jpg
(Accessed Dec. 05, 2011)

64
of the Fascist forum and focused their attention solely on the athletic uses of the site.
While in context and mindset this might work, it does not change the physical shape of
the place.
Mussolini’s influence on the area was dealt with subtlety. The name was changed
to Foro Italico. The end pylons, once left blank by Mussolini to record his future
triumphs, were inscribed with a description of his fall and the end of Fascism. But,
beyond these few aesthetic changes, the forum remains largely as it was first constructed.
Although at present day, many of the mosaics and pylons are littered with street graffiti
and the smooth tiled floor has become favorite space for local skaters.
Popular tour guides glance over Mussolini’s presence in the area. They briefly
mention his role in building the forum, but give no description of the mosaics or
inscriptions. The location of the Foro Italico, outside the popular tourist area, enables it
to slip into the environment unacknowledged. It is not easily found via public
transportation or foot, and unless attending an athletic event, the average tourist does not
typically make their way there.
Mussolini, creator and patron of the place, is ignored. His propagandistic
messages and images still remain in the landscape, but are treated as if they are really not
there. The people instead focus on the better role of the place, host to great athletic
championships. The good role has replaced the bad and with it, Mussolini himself goes
unacknowledged.

65
The Piazzale Augusto Imperatore
The Piazzale Augusto Imperatore is another area that remains in the urban
landscape as Mussolini originally intended. It is designed with his intention in mind – to
link the Fascist regime to the Emperor Augustus. Mussolini intentionally created this area
without any concern to historical accuracy or truthfully telling the historic narrative. His
overall propaganda scheme was of upmost importance.
The square incorporates three major buildings – the Mausoleum of Augustus, the
Ara Pacis, and the Fascist fabbricatos. The Mausoleum of Augustus sits as the anchor its
in original location. Mussolini stripped it of any modern elements and left in as a natural
ruin. To further promote the link to Augustus, Mussolini had the Ara Pacis reconstructed
nearby. The original location of the Ara Pacis was no longer available, covered by a
modern building. But, Mussolini placed the Ara Pacis in the Piazzale Augusto
Imperatore without noting its incorrect location. This creates a false sense of belonging.
Furthermore, Mussolini made symbolic comparisons to Ancient Rome, displaying Fascist
symbols alongside those of the ancients. The Fascist office buildings are covered in
inscriptions that appear like ancient Latin texts and relief sculptures created in the same
artistic form as the reliefs on the Ara Pacis. There is nothing provided to distinguish to
new from the old. What he created was a designed historical area.
Mussolini created his own designed historical narrative in the Piazzale Augusto
Imperatore. By interweaving monuments and Fascist buildings together, without
acknowledging their differences, it is unclear what retains historical integrity, what is
new construction, and what is propaganda. Symbols and sculptures that look the same

66
make no attempt to clear up any confusion; the entire space appears coherent even though
it was created through a piecemeal process (Figures 21 and 22). This unclear
understanding of the Piazza Augusto Imperatore allows Rome to maintain this area as
Mussolini created it. Without explicitly noting the different roles of the buildings,
Mussolini is invisible within this landscape, he simply melts into the larger historical
context unnoticed.

Mussolini is also able to remain in this section of the urban environment because
many consider it to be an unfavorable place. Although located in one of the most historic
areas of the city, it is often touted as dirty, unkempt, and unimportant. One reason for
Figures 21 and 22. Roman (left) and Fascist (right) arms on Fabbricato B. Spiro Kostof, “The
Emperor and the Duce: The Planning of Piazzale Augusto Imperator in Rome,” in Art and
Architecture in the Service of Politics, eds. Henry A. Millon and Linda Nochlin (Cambridge: MIT
Press, 1978). 310.

67
this is the redesign of the museum that houses the Ara Pacis (Figure 23). In 1997, in
anticipation of the new millennium, famous architect Richard Meier was commissioned
to design a new building to surround and house the Ara Pacis. His marble and glass
pavilion is one of the most detested buildings in all of Rome. Many believe the design
does not fit in the environment and some have even gone so far as to describe it as an
oversized air conditioning unit. The lack of concern for this area has kept any attention at
bay and further allows Mussolini to remain in the city landscape. The overall landscape
of the Piazza Augustus Imperatore has converged into a place of confusion over time.

The three time periods – Augustan Rome, Fascist Rome, and Rome of the twentieth
century – are indistinguishable. Since no effort has been made to note the different
Figure 23. East elevation, Ara Pacis Museum, Richard Meier. 2006.
www.e-architect.co.uk/images/jpgs/rome/rom_building_aw080217_195.jpg
(Accessed Dec. 05, 2011)

68
history stories in the physical landscape, Mussolini is able to remain, invisible in the
piazza of his own creation.
Termini Station
Mussolini is also undeniably present at the Termini Station. His mission to
update the entire train system of Italy had a great effect on many large Italian stations.
Modernization of transportation systems was a goal specified in the pre-Fascist Piano;
Mussolini continued that goal but altered the specifics regarding the plan. Originally
after the First World War the government planned to move the location of Termini
Station to Porta Maggiore and incorporating it into a larger scheme of trains and
subways. But Mussolini’s rise to power and development plan for the city, specifically
the new EUR area, changed that. He instead opted to keep Termini where it was, since
that better fit his ideas for a new Rome, and refashion the existing structure to fit Fascist
Rome’s needs.
The very first version of Termini was started under the popes in 1867 (Figure 24).
The papal project was slow and eventually suspended, unfinished, when the city of Rome
transferred power from the papacy to the Italian Republic. Eventually the state finished
the station in 1873.

69

Mussolini commissioned Angiolo Mazzoni to design the Fascist rework of
Termini. Mazzoni was a leading architect in the Italian state railway division. His design
reoriented the building in the landscape and created a low horizontal structure with a
large main atrium. The atrium featured imperial Roman design characteristics, marble
and columns, creating an impressive first impression for anyone entering Mussolini’s
city. A majority of the Fascist project was completed by 1943, including the long side
wings that are still present today. Like the papacy before him, Mussolini was forced to
suspend the construction due to political upheaval. During World War II the station
remained unfinished. After Mussolini’s fall, plans were made to finish station. The new
design for Termini was not created to simply complete the building; it was also intended
to erase the presence of Mussolini.
The post-war construction of the station focused on masking the original Fascist
design while modernizing the space. In an attempt to overshadow the Fascist portion a
dramatic concrete cantilever roof was added to the station (Figure 25). This would not
Figure 24. Termini, c. 1890. R.J.B. Bosworth, Whispering City:
Rome and Its Histories (New Haven: Yale UP, 2011), 122.

70
only draw attention away from the Fascist elements, but also create a modern structure in
the city, moving Rome away from Mussolini and into the future. The modern design
blanketed and covered the Fascist design elements.
The decision of the Italians to keep part of the Fascist design was both economical
and sensible. In the post-war
economic depression, the state did
not have the means or the ways to
restart the project or tear it down
completely. Instead they latched
on to the early papal form as
historical basis and worked to
cover and erase the presence of the
Mussolini era construction. This
method of erasure is clear to anyone visiting the station today. The history of the
building is related back to the original first version, begun by the popes and finished by
the Republic. The new post-world war Italian Republic is credited with the overall
design. Mussolini is only given a passing mention if it all and typically in modern
descriptions of the place, Mazzoni is given the credit removing Mussolini completely.
Unlike the Foro Italico or the Piazzale Augusto Imperatore, there was a clear plan
to cover up Mussolini at Termini. The Italian State was not willing to let him slip away.
Instead they created a new design scheme to absolutely erase him from the physical
environment.
Figure 25. Termini ticketing hall, c. 1950. Terry Kirk,
Architecture of Moderny Italy, Vol. 2: Visions of Utopia,
1900 – Present (New York: Princeton Architectural Press,
2005), 154.

71
Conclusion
While in power, Benito Mussolini transformed Rome into a city all his own. He
utilized Italy’s rich history and Romanità to propel Fascism into all areas of life. He
physically changed city to benefit his policies, wants, and needs. Mussolini added his
own layer of architectural history on top of the many existing histories already present in
the urban landscape. He created a physical manifesto of his ideals and principles. The
city of Rome had become the city of Fascism.
Post World War II, the people of Rome were faced with a city littered with the
physical reminders of their former leader. Through the course of the Italian Resistance
and allied occupation, the people of Rome had removed their allegiance to the Duce.
They no longer wanted reminders of their fallen and disgraced leader – they instead chose
to ignore, forget, or replace his presence in their city.
It is important to consider these techniques employed by the Romans because it
shows an attempt to deal with an unpopular history. The immediate reaction of the
Roman people is important. Their initial course was to destroy, as a knee jerk reaction to
the immediate previous events. But also important to consider is the long-term
techniques, developed over time, and still in place in the city of Rome.
The attempts to simply ignore Mussolini or cover his work up are successful
techniques, but maintain several consequences. First, by not acknowledging Mussolini’s
presence in particular areas or buildings, current visitors are given a false sense of
history. They are not instructed openly about the true nature of a place and therefore the
true historic context and integrity of the space is lost. Secondly, by covering work

72
ordered by Mussolini, the architects and designers, many who only worked for Mussolini
in an attempt to survive, are unacknowledged and their projects and efforts to the
architectural history of Rome are lost. In other words, they are sentenced to a lifetime of
anonymity because they built under the Duce’s orders. Finally, the city of Rome
withholds its true cultural landscape by ignoring the presence of Mussolini. Although a
unfavorable part of history, Mussolini did exist and he did much to create the current
state of the city of Rome. Many of his projects are still evident in the landscape, ignoring
them is ignoring history overall. Unfortunately for the Romans, the period of history they
would most like to forget is still physically evident today, no matter how hard they try to
push past it.
How societies deal with unfavorable history is an important study. The city of
Rome is only one example. However, it is important example because it is constantly
flooded with visitors. True, most come to see the Rome of the Ancients or the Rome of
the Popes, but what is not understood is they are also visiting the Rome of Mussolini.
Moving forward, more research and time should be devoted to help the city of Rome
understand the importance of Mussolini’s presence in the city. Although a difficult time
in their history, it is important to acknowledge it for a true historical understanding. To
create a full and true account of the history of the Roman landscape, Mussolini and his
projects must be acknowledged. Only in understanding Mussolini’s presence in the city
will the full history of the city of Rome be understood.

73
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