Piazzale del Foro Italico

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The Piazzale del Foro Italico , which was called Piazzale dell'Impero (German: "Platz des Imperiums") until 1946 , is located between the Piazza Lauro de Bosis with the Mussolini Obelisk and the Olympic Stadium on the Foro Italico (formerly Foro Mussolini) in North of Rome . This square is designed with mosaic floors and a fountain with a globe made of Carrara marble measuring three meters in diameter .

Space design

Since the mid-1920s, the Fascist Party of Italy had been planning to build a physical training facility for young people on the northern outskirts of Rome. On behalf of the Opera Nazionale Balilla , Enrico Del Debbio conceived the Mussoliniforum, today Foro Italico, from 1928 to 1933 . This created the axis between the Mussolini obelisk and the spherical fountain. In 1937 the newly founded Gioventù italiana del littorio took over the lead and commissioned Luigi Moretti with a further development with a view to an application by Rome for the Olympic Games in 1940 . Moretti, who also built numerous buildings around the plazza, designed the square with mosaics , based on drawings by Giulio Rossi, made of white Carrara marble and black mosaic stones. In the mosaics that lead from the Mussolini obelisk to the fountain, warlike and sporting themes as well as writings of fascist content such as DVCE (“Führer”) and DVCE A NOI (“Our Guide”) are inserted. The mosaics are divided into individual fields and show representations from ancient and modern times.

The square is the forecourt of the Rome Olympic Stadium . The course was renovated and redesigned for the 1960 Olympic Games and the 1990 World Cup . The mosaics with the fascist theme were retained.

Ball fountain

The spherical fountain (Italian Fontana della Sfera), with what is probably the world's largest marble sphere , with a diameter of 3 meters and a weight of 37 tons, is located in the center of the square. The ball is on a square plinth and is sprayed with water from the edge of the round fountain basin. The fountain was designed in 1933-1934 by the architects Giulio Pediconi and Mario Paniconi.

Interpretation critical of ideology

The representative axis between the obelisk and the fountain

Eamonn Canniffe describes this piazzale as follows:

"The axial space between the sphere and the obelisk was to became the Piazzale del Impero, the most significant ceremonial space of the complex."
("The axis-like space between the spherical fountain and the Mussolini obelisk became the Piazzale del Impero, the most ceremonial space [in the sense of the urban city and square planning of Fascism] of the Foro Mussolini").

The square is lined with numerous marble blocks, including a large block on which Mussolini's proclamation of Impero on March 9, 1936 was struck. The Impero (Italian for empire ) was the vision of Italian fascism of Italy and its African colonies in Libya and East Africa as the decisive hegemonic power in the Mediterranean region .

The square was intended to be used for internal and external propaganda to foreign visitors to the 1940 Summer Olympics and the planned E42 World Exhibition in the Esposizione Universale di Roma (EUR) district of 1942. The Eur district was designed as a model example of fascist urban planning under Mussolini. Both events did not take place due to the international isolation of Italy because of the war between Italy and Abyssinia from 1935-36 and because of the Second World War .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Monika Meyer-Künzel: Urban development of the world exhibitions and the Olympic Games. Dissertation, University of Braunschweig, 1998, pp. 226–235, urn : nbn: de: gbv: 084-120444 .
  2. ↑ Touring Club Italiano: Guida Rossa, Roma, p. 739.
  3. ^ Mario Giannini: Piazzale del Monolite - Luigi Moretti. ArchiDiap, October 19, 2014, accessed May 24, 2016.
  4. ↑ Eamonn Canniffe: Politics of the Piazza, S. 197 (see bibliography).

Coordinates: 41 ° 55 ′ 57.2 "  N , 12 ° 27 ′ 25.7"  E