Foro Italico

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Sports statues in the Stadio dei Marmi made of Carrara marble

The Foro Italico , formerly Foro Mussolini , is a monumental sports complex in Rome , built between 1928 and 1938 , which initially served the paramilitary, physical fitness-oriented youth organization of the fascist regime , the Opera Nazionale Balilla . An application for the 1940 Summer Olympics by fascist Italy by Mussolini was planned. The summer games were eventually awarded to Japan. After the Second World War , the Foro Italico was the venue for numerous sporting events, such as the 1960 Summer Olympics , the 1990 World Cup and the 2009 World Swimming Championships .

Location and building tradition

Located at the foot of Monte Mario and adjacent to the Palazzo della Farnesina (then Palazzo del Littorio ) , which dates from the same era, includes the Olympic Stadium in Rome , the Stadio dei Marmi (marble stadium) lined with larger-than-life "heroic" sports figures , a swimming stadium and Tennis courts, the Mussolini Obelisk and the Piazzale del Impero with the marble fountain of the spheres with the stone globe measuring 3 meters in diameter. The direct access to the Olympic Stadium across the Tiber is made via the stone bridge Ponte Duca d'Aosta , while the two-lane traffic route along the Tiber leads past the facility. The bridge over the Tiber, the Mussolini Obelisk and the Sphere Fountain lie on an axis to the stadium. The spherical fountain, in the middle of which is the globe, is rounded off with large-scale mosaics and paved with numerous mosaics up to the obelisk.

The Foro Italico offers a typical and well-preserved example of the instrumentalization of sport for the purposes of an ideology, here fascism and its mastery .

The Italian fascists idealized Roman traditions and built on ancient architecture. Throughout Italy, the architectural style was determined by new monumental structures such as forums , triumphal arches and monumental statues. The Mussolini Forum, which was created on the banks of the Tiber, was the direct expression of these ideas. Fascist symbols were attached to other existing structures; In the Mussolini Forum, the creation of new sports arenas, which are lined with monumental sculptures made of Carrara marble , was linked to ancient models; the Mussolini Obelisk forms the center of this forum. In addition to the monumental statues, large-scale colored mosaics of figurative representations of beings and animals are placed on the walls and floors. The inscriptions DVCE (“Führer”), DVCE A NOI (“Our Duce”), MOLTI NEMICI MOLTO ONORE (“Much enemy, much honor”) and DVCE LA NOSTRA GIOVINEZZA A VOI DEDICHIAMO (“ Duce, we give you our youth ”) inserted.

Building history

The Foro Italico was designed by Enrico Del Debbio and Luigi Moretti . Stages of construction progress were celebrated on high days of the fascist regime. On November 4, 1932, after the celebration of the tenth anniversary of the March on Rome , the Duce “consecrated” the first group of buildings: the Palazzo dell'Accademia Fascista, the Mussolini Obelisk and the Stadio dei Marmi. On May 9, 1937, on the first anniversary of the founding of the fascist empire , Mussolini inaugurated the Palazzo delle Terme, the Piazzale dell'Impero, the Casa delle Armi and the Olympic Stadium. On December 15, 1938, the sports facility complex was officially completed. At about the same time, construction began on the neighboring Palazzo del Littorio, the seat of the fascist party headquarters and now the Foreign Ministry.

The 220 m long and 30 m wide Ponte Duca d'Aosta by the architect Vincenzo Fasolo over the Tiber made of natural stone was built between 1939 and 1942 and provides direct access to the forum. On the pylons of the bridge there are high reliefs of armed conflicts of the 20th century.

Sporting events

Partial view of the marble stadium with monumental statues

literature

  • Giorgio Muratore: The cult site of the fascist youth , in: Jan Tabor: Art and dictatorship . Exhibition catalog, Vienna 1994
  • Robert Schediwy : City images - reflections on the change in architecture and urbanism . Vienna 2005 (especially p. 210 ff.), ISBN 3-8258-7755-8

Web links

Commons : Foro Italico  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Mussolini Forum. In: arch INFORM ; Retrieved October 17, 2009.
  2. ^ Ute Schleimer: The Opera Nazionale Balilla or Gioventù Italiana del Littorio and the Hitler Youth. A comparative representation. S. 60. Waxmann, Münster 2004. ISBN 978-3-8309-1445-7 . Available online , accessed October 24, 2009
  3. ↑ Nanni Baltzer: Noi dobbiamo creare (...) un'arte dei nostri tempi, un'arte fascista (Mussolini). Photography and Architecture in Fascism , in: Thesis, Scientific Journal of the Bauhaus University Weimar 2003, Issue 4, p. 180 f. ( PDF  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ).@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / e-pub.uni-weimar.de  
  4. ↑ Images of the Ponte Duca d'Aosta

Coordinates: 41 ° 55 ′ 56 ″  N , 12 ° 27 ′ 30 ″  E