Fascist Italy Flashcards
Names of Fascist South Rome New Towns;
Littoria (1932) Sabaudia (1934) Pontiana (1935) Aprilia (1937) Pomezia (1939)
Characteristic features of south rome new towns;
- wide avenues
- all followed rational, distinctive plan (piano regulatore)
- modernist buildings
- represented Fascism’s rise out of the inhabitable
How many families occupying south rome new towns by end of 1932? which town?
350 families
Littoria
How much was spent on reclamation of marshland?
How much of this was specifically on the Pontine Marshes?
7billion lire in 14 years
PM = 550mil
What type of project can the reclamation of the marshes be described as?
Faustian
What previous efforts had been made to reclaim the marshes?
Liberal gov had tried to pass 50 laws to take control of the swampy, malaria ridden marshes
How many workers were involved in the Pontine Marshes project?
50,000 workers involved in 1932
What was the reclamation of the mashes synonymous with?
with Fascist national regeneration
= creation of a perfect Fascist settlement from scratch
How can architecture be described under Fascism?
Highly politicised and ideologically charged, yet little unity in style -
What were the new towns in the south an attempt to encourage / what type of policy were they part of?
Part of ruralisation policy, which sought to encourage procreation - form of spatial population management
= shows Italy’s struggle with modernity
When were pro-natalist policies introduced in Italy? What were these part of?
Pro-natalist policy introduced in 1927;
part of spatial population management
Who considers ruralisation to actually be for the benefit of the good of the city?
Treves
What were the objectives of the Pontine Marshes program?
- liberalise Italian property
- solve rural - urban migration
- reduce rural demographic decline
How was migration within Italy increasing controlled?
Internal colonisation (i.e Pontine Marshes) encouraging individuals to stay in rural areas
Establishment of the CMC in 1931; permits required for migration and travel
What type of publicity did the Pontine Marshes program receive?
large amounts of press; i.e Le Monde / NYT
Name of the Piazza where the most destruction occurred?
What was maintained here?
When did destruction on a mass scale begin?
Piazza Venezia
Theatre of Marcellus was retained as the symbolic structure
1926
Who won the completion for Fascist Party HQ?
How long did the competition take
Del Debbio
6 years long
1930s in Rome was a decade of
frenetic demolition
Although Fascism did not have a typical, unified style, what was characteristic;
having a piazza, as a result of the destruction of vernacular infrastructure, which framed and provided a vista for a significant, ideological monument within the urban topography
Fascist architecture was NOT a style, but the ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE
Italian term for ‘Making Space’
Sventramenti
Italian term for ‘Do not Touch’ - i.e Theatre of Marcellus
Noll me tangere
Quote from Mussolini on Empire;
‘Empire is out goal - to found cities, to colonise’
What was the objective of empire for Mussolini and the Fascsists
- to foster a sense of mass Fascist identity
- to enstill Fascist ideological values
- sense of nationalism at home
- opportunity to present Italy’s modernity to other nations
What years was Ethiopia occupied by the Fascists and Italy?
1936-41
Chosen capital of Ethiopia ;
Addis Ababa
What was planning in the colonies intended to do?
- emphasise hierarchies
- standardise homeland and colony
- impose Fascist values
- show how Fascists can produce progress through rapidity of colonial construction
What was important about colonial planning in terms of visibility?
Whites were to be seen by natives, but natives not to be seen by whites
What was the colonial planning process;
- colonise space
- dehistoricise space
- impose ideology / values
- demographic colonisation
Describe the Gondar;
- investment banks / insurance / legal and military capital
- agricultural products and export capital
Where was building concentrated in Gondar?
Why was this?
Fasil Ghebbi - where most building took place
Region had naturally two elevations of different heights - could use the natural topography to functionally segregate white and native population
Gondar was a site for mass rallies, what was the name of these rallies
Give an example of a piazza where these took place
Adunate
Piazza del Littorio
What was the purpose of mass rallies and sites for ADUNATE?
To foster sense of new imperial identity
Why was tourism a positive for the Fascist government?
- consolidation of Fascist power in Italy
- increase in patriotism
In 1938 what was built to assist tourism?
Highway from Gondar to the Red Sea
How did tourism increase patriotism?
sense of victory over ethiopians
opposite of the Caparreto
What was built in Gondar to facilitate the tourism industry?
1938; highway to Red Sea
X2 small hotels - includes Albergo Ciara Hotel
Two symbolic buildings constructed in Fasil Ghebbi, Gondar;
MILITARY BUILDINGS: appropriated from Castle; Fascist state shown to be incorporating Ethiopia into their power and authority
POST OFFICE
Ideological function - extension of imperial authority across East Africa,
What was the plan introduced for Fasil Ghebbi?
When was this introduced?
Bosio’s Plan
1938
What did Bosio’s plan seek to do?
wanted to relocate Ethiopians to new villages in the south, away from Ghebbi
This would create room for more party / ideology / public buildings in the centre of Ghebbi
Involved linear blocks rather than court-year centred (increased surveillance)
How many Italians did Bosio want in Fasil Ghebbi?
Was this possible, why?
Wanted 20,000 Italians in Fasil Ghebbi
Ministry of Italian Africa reduced Bosio’s budget - Italy failed to recognised the high cost of colonisation
How can you tell that there is some level of racial anxiety in Italy?
Italians considered segregation of towns a priority -
guarding against interracial fraternisation
Racial Laws of 1937/38;
i.e using greenbelts to segregate
What did Gondar provide for the regime?
Gondar gave physical form to the values and aspirations of the regime;
normalised foreign domination > sovereign state
Who suggested that there are multiple reasons why regimes seek to use destruction within urban planning?
Kostof
Italian phrase for Italy’s defeat in WWI
Caparetto
How can you tell that Italy still retained value over the agrarian in terms of the new southern towns?
Tribute to agrarian lifestyle; Sabaudia’s church resembles grain silo
Way to describe Italy post 1922
Militaristic nationalism, highly politically and ideologically charged
Panoptic society maintained discipline
Seeking to redefine the Caparetto
What happened to position Mussolini in power?
Socialists go on strike
Mussolini and the Fascist ‘Blackshirts’ March on Rome (Oct 1922)
When was the Variante Plan imposed?
What were some of its characteristics?
Variante Plan 1925-26
Plan in Fascist Era for Rome - largely pre-Fascist ideas - idea of rationalising the city
- preservation of integrity of old centre
- decongestion
Mussolini frequently spoke of the need to remove what type of construction?
What did this need a differentiation between;
Removal of ‘parasitic vernacular construction’
Required differentiation between questions of necessity and questions of grandeur
How can the style of Fascist Italy be described
Largely non-committal - never materialised into a concrete program
Large amount of autonomy for architects - many competitions
Spanned the entire Aesthetic Spectrum
from RADICAL MODERNISM (RAZIONALISMO) to CONSERVATIVE CLASSICISM
What is the Italian term for radical modernism?
Razionalismo
1920s period for Fascist architecture;
period of modest achievement
What was Third Rome intended to be?
Revival of the legacy of ancient Rome, aided by a Fascist layer
attempt to create balance of ancient Roman Past + Fascist Future
- centre for the italian people
- centre for the world
What plan was introduced in Italy in 1931
What was its character like
Regulatory Plan for Rome 1931
Far more fascist in character
Other ways of saying ‘making space’
- Sventramenti
- ‘Liberating majestic monuments’
What was used to compliment the ancient ideological monuments that were being ‘liberated’
What did this help to create
modest new construction which did not antagonise, but ‘framed’
Helped to create vistas conducive to Fascist vision
Piazza which experienced notorious amount of destruction
What was preserved (noll me tangere)
Piazza VENEZIA
Theatre of Marcellus
What area was basically cut off from any type of destruction or interference prior to 1930s
What changed?
Area surrounding the Vatican
1929 Lateran Pacts
1931 Regulatory Plan
What would the construction of new monumental buildings do?
Would compromise the real Fascist conquest of the area; not conducive to the Third Rome
Equation for the creation of a new Fascist layer
large scale demolitions + reconstruction of the monumental + secondary, modest framing construction
= new Fascist layer
Term for the creation of blank space;
What was this
‘First Stroke of the Pickaxe”
Primo colpo di piccone
Ceremony celebrating the creation of blank space
Who explains the nature of the ‘First Stroke of the Pickaxe’ ceremony?
What is this term in Italian?
Kallis
Primo Colpo di Piccone
How did Mussolini’s ‘Third Rome’ emerge?
How did this occur?
In a piecemeal manner, gradually
Shied away from antagonistic statements - Fascists still demonstrated ability to penetrate and appropriate urban space
What percentage of Pontine Marshes work was completed?
Only 58%
What is often forgotten about the marshes development? Other than spatial management of populations
The investment into machinery / engineering
Mass investment on reclamation
Italian term for rational urban plan
Piano Regolatore
What were the piano regolatore for the new towns in the south informed upon
population levels
Pace of Fascist construction clear in;
What was this a result of
- Core of Sabaudia produced in only 250 days
- Government support; Mussolini a frequent visitor, much funding
What was characteristic of Sabaudia?
dominated by regime institutions
i.e PNF / administration buildings
stamped ‘from above’
What happened to religion / ideology
How was this shown?
Religious meaning subverted - instead assigned political / ideological significance
i. e Church in Sabaudia resembled more a grain silo than a church
i. e street names were Fascist take on history
Who refers to the work of Italy in the colonies?
Fuller
X2 examples of Italy projecting global image
EUR 1942: Rome (World’s Fair)
Colonisation of Ethiopia
When was the World’s Fair? Where?
World’s Fair EUR 1942 - business district in the south
What did the press praise Italian Fascism for?
What examples did they use
Press praised level of progress under Fascism -
Sabaudia; 250 days
Progress + development in Ethiopia
