One of the world’s great cities bears the signature of a Fascist dictator, and while nobody wants to talk about it (or in the case of most Romans, cares about it), his presence is still everywhere in Rome.

Here I look at the rise of Mussolini, the creation and construction of his most visible legacy, the Via Imperiali, then try and point out a few of his reminders scattered about Rome.

Hitler visits Rome, May 1938

 

Hitler’s trip to Italy in May 1938 came just two months after the Anschlus, uniting Austria to Germany. His journey included Rome, Florence and Naples. Hitler’s interest in art made it mandatory that he view the great artistic and architectural achievements of the Renaissance in Rome. Mussolini took him to Naples to review the Italian navy. Nevertheless, it was Rome, the Rome of Mussolini, which was the centrepiece of Hitler’s visit. Hitler arrived in Rome on May 3 after a train ride through the Brenner Pass and down the spine of Italy, where thousands of Italians were assembled along the way to cheer and wave flags.

 

To commemorate Hitler's forthcoming visit, the current Ostiense station was built, replacing an existing rural railway station, with the aim of creating a monumental station to receive the German dictator. (The large piazza in front of the station has in modern times been renamed the Piazza dei Partigiani to commemorate the partisans of the resistance.) The German eagle and swastika were prominently displayed throughout the station. Inside the main pavilion, two murals celebrated the achievements of the two movements, one for Nazism and one for Fascism. The first represented the Germany of Hitler as the successor of Frederick II and of Bismarck, while the second mural of Mussolini’s Italy emphasised the ongoing victory march of fascism. Pagano’s Casabella praised the advanced techniques used in the station’s roof as well as the speed and efficiency of construction. Beyond the new station’s style and techniques of construction, Ostiense represented Mussolini’s desire to have his own new grand point of entry for Hitler and subsequent high-profile visitors. It signified yet again the reshaping of Rome to suit the purposes of fascism. Mussolini boasted "The Ostiense station will permit illustrious guests to make an entrance into Rome within the impressive area of new construction: the Via Imperiale, the Via dei Trionfi and Via dell’Impero, thus being carried immediately into contact with the major monuments of Imperial Romanità” that were part of Rome’s development toward the sea.

Shortly after 8:00 am on the morning of May 3, 1938, the Duke of Pistoia, a cousin of the King, welcomed Hitler to Italy on the Italian side of the Brenner Pass. That evening at 8:30, the special train pulled into the Ostiense station in Rome. King Victor Emmanuel III, Mussolini, and Ciano were present to greet Hitler. Hitler was wearing his brown uniform and his peaked cap, knee boots and knee breeches. The King, Mussolini and Ciano were clad in uniforms as well. Hitler's visit to Rome is cinematically recreated in director Ettore Scola's film Una giornata particolare, who also used archived newsreel footage showing the actual meeting between Hitler, Benito Mussolini, and Victor Emanuel III. Italian architect Roberto Narducci designed the station in the architectural style favoured by Hitler- the design of the station's marble façade was almost identical to that of the Italian pavilion at the 1942 Rome World's Fair (a design never fully realised due to the Second World War).

The station building was inaugurated on October 28, 1940. The entire façade is made of Travertine marble and the entrance is marked by a columned portico.

On the right side of the façade is a relief by Francesco Nagni representing the mythical figures of Bellerophon and Pegasus.

Outside the main doors, fascist mosaics, including a map of the Roman Empire, continue to decorate the pavement. The map is framed by a Roman triumphal arch and the figure of a victorious Augustus with the imperial eagle, which was designed to make a clear statement about Fascist pride in the idea of empire and in the importance, as they saw it, of linking the ‘vitality of the Italian people’ with the greatness of ancient Rome. The mosaics serve to reinforce the greatness of Rome, even if by lying about having had Ireland and Scotland as part of its empire, but originally it served as a path to the two stadiums and other facilities. Throughout are such references to the Duce and slogans of the regime such as “Many enemies, much honour,” “Duce, we dedicate our youth to you,” and “Better to live one day as a lion than a hundred as a sheep.” The mosaics were the work of artists Angelo Canevari, Achille Capizzano, Giulio Rosso, and Gino Severini. One mosaic is a map of the Via del Mare with its ancient sites: the Theatre of Marcellus and the two ancient temples. Across from it is a map of the Foro Mussolini. What the pair of mosaics presents through myth, then, is a foundation analogy, suggesting that the new empire of 1936 celebrated by this Fascist forum is equivalent in its greatness and portent to the foundation of Rome by Romulus and Remus. Another mosaic quoted the words Mussolini spoke to the crowd on May 9, 1936... “Italy finally has its empire.”

The road leading from the station to the Porta San Paolo was named Viale Adolfo Hitler, now renamed Viale delle Cave Ardeatine to commemorate the victims of the Via Rasella action. From Ostiense station the motorcade made its way down the new Viale Adolfo Hitler, up the Viale Aventino, renamed that year the Viale Africa, past the Circus Maximus, up the Via Trionfi past the Arch of Constantine and the Colosseum, then down the Via dell Impero to the Piazza Venezia and, finally, to the royal palace on the Quirinal Hill. This route took Hitler right through the heart of the historic centre newly transformed by Mussolini. It was, in the words of the New York Times, a spectacle to remember.

 
For Chancellor Adolf Hitler's arrival a whole section of Rome, stretching across the city, had been transformed. Along the three-mile route that he traveled from the new railroad station built for him to the King's palace, ruins of the past were floodlighted to enclose a modern fantasy of white pillars and gilded symbols of fascism and nazism. There were illuminated fountains, huge pylons spouting flames and everywhere flags without end, banners of Germany, of Italy and of Rome.

After Hitler's arrival, the King and Hitler ride to the Quirinal Palace in the royal carriage. The Quirinal Palace is an historic building, one of the three current official residences of the President of the Italian Republic, together with Villa Rosebery in Naples and Tenuta di Castelporziano. It is located on the Quirinal Hill, the highest of the seven hills of Rome. It has housed thirty Popes, four Kings of Italy and twelve presidents of the Italian Republic. The palace extends for an area of 110,500 square metres and is the ninth largest palace in the world in terms of area. Mussolini had to remain behind since he was not a head of state as Hitler was.  Protocol required that the king, as head of state, host Hitler, also head of state, upon his arrival. The head of government, Benito Mussolini left the station by private car for home, just one more annoyance of having to defer to the monarch as constitutional head of state, King Victor Emmanuel III was thrust into the Fuhrer's company too often for the contentment of either. It was said that the King asked Hitler unavailingly how many nails could be found in the German infantry boot, and then illustrated his own pedantic knowledge of detail by explaining that in the Italian boot there were 74 (22 in the heel and 52 in the sole). In 1942 Hitler was still recalling that he had 'never seen anything worse' than the lugubrious courtiers he met.

Protocol having been satisfied, Mussolini then accompanied Hitler for the remainder of his visit. The next day, Hitler received Mussolini at the Quirinal Palace at 10:00 am Thirty minutes later, they placed wreaths on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and at the Pantheon and thereafter inspected 4,000 militiamen. Above the swastika armband on his left sleeve, Hitler wore the insignia of an Honorary Corporal in the Fascist Militia. It consisted of a triangle of cloth with a fascio in its centre. The honorary dagger of the Fascist Militia adorned his leather belt. In spite of the known fact that Hitler despised militia units, he was most patient that day, submitting to the ordeal without complaint for the sake of his friendship with Mussolini. One can see how the Pantheon influenced the plans for Hitler's vast Volkshalle, the centrepiece of the new Nazi capital of Germania.

At 11:00 am Hitler and Mussolini laid a wreath at the monument to the dead of the Fascist Movement. This monument was located in a small memorial chapel in the Palazzo Littorio, the headquarters of the Fascist Party, now the Palazzo del Catasto. The fascist iconography on the façade remains. Here Hitler was honoured by the Italian Fascists with a gift, a vase dating from the fourth century BCE with the swastika insignia.

On May 6 the great parade in Hitler's honour took place. Hitler, Goebbels, Hess, von Ribbentrop and other Nazi officials joined the king and queen, Mussolini, Ciano and other fascist leaders on the flag-draped reviewing stand on the Via dei Trionfi. The parade took two hours, as youth, military, and party units marched by. Many of the military units used the goosestep, recently introduced by Mussolini and called the Roman step, passo romano. Perhaps 50,000 persons watched the review. Hitler, when he appeared with the King, was received with cordial, but not overwhelming cheers and much of the cheering was for the King. But when Mussolini joined them there was a roar that completely drowned out the previous mild acclaim. Following the parade and lunch at the German Embassy, Hitler visited the Augustan Exhibit on the Via Nazionale, illustrating the various phases of the political, economic and social life of the Roman Empire. The day ended with an open-air concert at the Villa Borghese park given in Hitler's honour, with 100,000 people in attendance. It had been a very special day for Rome and the two leaders who were drawing their two nations ever more closely together.

[Thanks to David Heath, Head of Humanities at the Bavarian International School]