Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Fascism, Futurism & the 20th Century
Rome entered the 20th century in good shape. During the last 30 years of the 19th century
it had been treated to one of its periodic makeovers - this time after being made capital of
the Kingdom of Italy in 1870. Piazzas were built - Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II, at the
centre of a new upmarket residential district, and neoclassical Piazza della Repubblica,
over Diocletian's bath complex - and roads were laid. Via Nazionale and Via Cavour were
constructed to link the city centre with the new railway station, Stazione Termini, and
Corso Vittorio Emanuele II to connect Piazza Venezia with the Vatican. To celebrate unific-
ation and pander to the ego of the ruling Savoy family, the Vittoriano monument was built
between 1885 and 1911.
Rationalism & Rebuilding
Influenced by the German Bauhaus movement, architectural rationalism was all the rage in
1920s Europe. In its international form it advocated an emphasis on sharply defined linear
forms, but in Italy it took on a slightly different look, thanks to the influence of the Gruppo
Sette, its main Italian promoters, and Benito Mussolini, Italy's fascist dictator. Basically,
the Gruppo Sette acknowledged the debt Italian architecture owed to its classical past and
incorporated elements of that tradition into their modernistic designs. Aesthetically and
politically, this tied in perfectly with Mussolini's vision of fascism as the modern bearer of
ancient Rome's imperialist ambitions.
