A ''casa del Fascio'', ''casa Littoria'', or ''casa del Littorio'' () was a building housing the local branch of the

National Fascist Party The National Fascist Party ( it, Partito Nazionale Fascista, PNF) was a political party in Italy, created by Benito Mussolini as the political expression of Italian Fascism and as a reorganization of the previous Italian Fasces of Combat. The ...

and later the

Republican Fascist Party The Republican Fascist Party ( it, Partito Fascista Repubblicano, PFR) was a political party in Italy led by Benito Mussolini during the German occupation of Central and Northern Italy and was the sole legal and ruling party of the Italian Socia ...

under the regime of Italian Fascism, in Italy and its colonies. In major urban centers, it was called the ''palazzo del Littorio'' or ''palazzo Littorio''. ''Littorio'' means ''

lictor A lictor (possibly from la, ligare, "to bind") was a Roman civil servant who was an attendant and bodyguard to a magistrate who held ''imperium''. Lictors are documented since the Roman Kingdom, and may have originated with the Etruscans. Orig ...

'', the bearer of the '' fasces lictorii'', the symbol of Roman power adopted by the Fascist party.

History

There were about 11,000 ''case del Fascio'' in all. Around 5,000 buildings were constructed specifically as ''case del Fascio''. Many of them were designed by Italian rationalist architects including

Adalberto Libera Adalberto Libera (; 16 July 1903 – 17 March 1963) was one of the most representative architects of the Italian Modern movement.Adalberto Libera at DARC (Dept. of Architecture and Contemporary Art, Italian Ministry for Cultural Heritage) Biog ...

Saverio Muratori Saverio Muratori ( Modena, 1910 – Rome, 1973) was an Italian architect, regarded as one of the pioneers of typomorphological investigations of urban form.Moudon, Anne Vernez, "Getting to Know the Built Landscape: Typomorphology", in Franck, Karen ...

, Ludovico Quaroni,

Giuseppe Samonà Giuseppe Samonà (1898–1983) was an Italian architect and urban planner, whose notable works include the post office in the Appio quarter of Rome (built 1933–6), the Banca d'Italia in Padua (1968) and a theatre in Sciacca, Sicily (1974–9). ...

, and

Giuseppe Terragni Giuseppe Terragni (; 18 April 1904 – 19 July 1943) was an Italian architect who worked primarily under the fascist regime of Benito Mussolini and pioneered the Italian modern movement under the rubric of Rationalism. His most famous work is the C ...

, but there were also

historicist Historicism is an approach to explaining the existence of phenomena, especially social and cultural practices (including ideas and beliefs), by studying their history, that is, by studying the process by which they came about. The term is widely u ...

and

modern Modern may refer to: History * Modern history ** Early Modern period ** Late Modern period *** 18th century *** 19th century *** 20th century ** Contemporary history * Moderns, a faction of Freemasonry that existed in the 18th century Phil ...

architects. The ''Case del Fascio'' became one of the central points of the new cities and new towns founded under the regime, along with the church and the town hall. In smaller towns, existing buildings were bought or rented, sometimes unmodified, sometimes specially adapted.

After World War II The aftermath of World War II was the beginning of a new era started in late 1945 (when World War II ended) for all countries involved, defined by the decline of all colonial empires and simultaneous rise of two superpowers; the Soviet Union (U ...

, the ''Case del Fascio'' were turned over to the Italian state under the provisions of Law 159 of July 27, 1944, "Sanctions against Fascism". Often they bear still today signs or emblems of the fascist regime. At present, only the Bolzano former ''Casa Littoria'' has been recontextualized, displaying from 2017 onwards a quote from

Hannah Arendt Hannah Arendt (, , ; 14 October 1906 – 4 December 1975) was a political philosopher, author, and Holocaust survivor. She is widely considered to be one of the most influential political theorists of the 20th century. Arendt was born ...

placed over a monumental bas-relief with at its center Mussolini himself and publicly contradicting him.{{Citation , last = Obermair , first = Hannes , contribution = Monuments and the City—an almost inextricable entanglement , editor = Matthias Fink, display-editors=et al , title = 'Multiple Identitäten in einer "glokalen Welt"—Identità multiple in un "mondo glocale"—Multiple identities in a "glocal world" , pages = 88–99 , publisher =

Eurac Research Eurac Research is a private research center headquartered in Bolzano, South Tyrol. The center has eleven institutes and five centers. Eurac Research has more than 800 partners spread across 56 countries. Eurac Research collaborates with internatio ...

, place = Bozen-Bolzano, year = 2017 , isbn = 978-88-98857-35-7

Bibliography

*''L'architettura delle Case del Fascio nella Regione Lazio'', a cura di Flavio Mangone e Andrea Soffitta, Alinea, Firenze, 2006

Notes

Italian fascist architecture Headquarters of political parties

History

See also

Bibliography

Notes