Fascism's legacy is everywhere in Rome. But only in three places--EUR, to the south of the city; the University district, in central Rome; and the Foro Italico (originally called Foro Mussolini)--did the Fascists create the grand, monumental, architectural complexes intended to bring glory to the regime and the Duce and to illustrate dramatically Fascism's ideological commitments. A city within a city, the Foro Italico complex was dedicated to youth, sports, and physical fitness--all Fascist obsessions. The chief architect was Enrico Del Debbio, assisted by rationalist Luigi Moretti. It opened in 1932 and comes in at #5 on the RST Top 40. That it still exists owes something to the American soldiers who occupied the site after Rome was liberated in 1944.
We take readers of
Rome the Second Time through Foro Italico at the end of Itinerary 9 (Monte Mario), as we come eastward toward the Tevere off Monte Mario. To best appreciate the Foro on its own, we suggest an approach from Flaminio, over the Ponte Duca d'Aosta (itself an example of Fascist moderism, completed in 1939). Here you'll see (or you won't see, if it's still shrouded for restoration), the most prominent symbol of the Foro and the Fascist regime: a 60-foot obelisk, known as "The Monolith," with the name MUSSOLINI prominently displayed. To the left of the monument (if our memories serve us) is the Natatorium (pool building); if it's open for an event, or just plain open, wander in and have a look at the splended mosaics.
To the right of The Monolith is an enormous building painted in Italian reddish pink: the Accademia di Educazione Fisica (Academy of Physical Education, also known as the "H Palace" for its figuration as seen from the air). The Academy was originally painted in a brown red intended to evoke antiquity and to harmonize with the green background of Monte Mario (today mostly obscured--some would say tragically--by the remodeled sports stadium, where Rome's soccer teams play). Further down the Lungotevere (you can go there first or after you've seen the rest of the complex) is the white marble facade of the Foresteria Sud (South Guest Quarters). This building, too, was originally in rosso-bruno (brown red) but was redone very early on, in 1937, with a skin of white Carrara marble, apparently in order to put the building in sinc with Moretti's nearby Casa delle Armi, which housed the fencing academy. Although today largely inaccessible, the Casa delle Armi is considered by some authorities to be the most important piece of architecture in the entire complex. The elaborate open portico that once graced the rounded portion of the Foresteria is no more.
Returning to the obelisk, continue directly beyond it to the Piazzale del'Impero (Grand Piazza of the Empire), an area favored more by skateboarders than tourists. At your feet are an extraordinary set of mosaics by Gino Severini and other distinguished artists, each with a Fascist or imperial theme and many with a Fascist slogan, among them Mussolini's 1936 pat on the back, "Italy finally has its empire." The piazzale's marble blocks, at 5' high a bit of a challenge for the skateboarders, commemorate what the Fascists remembered as their achievements: the March on Rome, the conquest of Ethiopia, and so on. A few new ones added after the war, celebrate Fascism's fall and the emergence of a democratic state. The piazzale was designed by Luigi Moretti.
At the end of the Piazzale lies the 42-ton Fountain of the Sphere (1933), transported to Rome from Carrara, and beyond it, two stadiums. The larger of the two bears almost no resemblance to the original but may be of interest because it housed the track-and-field events of the 1960 Rome Olympics, an event we considered at length in an earlier post. The better and more evocative work is the smaller stadium, the Stadio dei Marmi (Stadium of the Marbles), where the Olympic athletes stretched and warmed up for their events. Today it looks very much as it did when it opened in 1932. It's a lovely, complex work, subtle, elegant and remarkably simple in its basic configuration, monomental in the power of its statuary: 60 statues, each from and representing an Italian city, together a symbol of Italian unity, each alone a representation of the ideal Fascist body. The Fascists were justifiably proud of this structure; the Hitler Youth appeared here when they came to Rome.
Above the trees and eastward off the far end of the Stadio dei Marmi is the Ministero degli Affari Esteri (Ministry of Foreign Affairs [1937-59], also known as La Farnesina). Though not always part of the Foro Italico, it's worth a look if only because it won a design competition for building to house the Partito Nazionale Fascista (National Fascist Party). It's by A. Foschini, V. Morpurgo and Del Debbio, and its massive look reflects the decline of rationalist modernism and the rise of a more monoumental architectural style, a development that followed upon Italy's increasingly bellicose foreign policy. The huge piazza was intended to showcase enormous Fascist rallies (600,000 people) and was to include a memorial to "caduti fascisti" (fallen fascists). A photo of building during construction in 1940 shows a more open, columned center entrance, though nothing sufficient to alleviate the heaviness of the structure. The globe-like sculpture at the front left, with its "one world" vibe, is pretty cool.
A set of late-modernist structures toward the Tevere, designed as the International House of Students in the late 1950s, is today notable mostly for the extent of degradation. Still, evocative.
Bill
