Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Palazzo della Civiltà del Lavoro, EUR (
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LONELY PLANET / GETTY IMAGES ©
A shrewd manipulator of imagery, Mussolini embarked on a series of grandiose build-
ing projects, including the 1928−31 Foro Italico sports centre, Via dei Foro Imperiali and
the residential quarter of Garbatella. Garbatella, now a colourful neighbourhood in south-
ern Rome, was originally planned as an English-style garden city to house the city's work-
ers, but in the 1920s the project was hijacked by the fascist regime, which had its own
designs. Central to these were innovative housing blocks, known as
alberghi suburbani
(suburban hotels), which were used to accommodate people displaced from the city
centre. The most famous of these hotels, the
Albergo Rosso,
was designed by Innocenzo
Sabbatini (1891−1983), the leading light of the Roman School of architecture. This local
movement looked to ally modern functionalism with a respect for tradition and a utopian
vision of urban development.
