The Palazzo della Civiltà Italianaalso known as “Palazzo della Civiltà del Lavoro” and nicknamed “Square Colosseum”, is a monumental building in Rome conceived in 1936inaugurated in 1940 and completed in 1953symbol of the EUR neighborhood. It is a very particular building, an example of the most famous of rational and metaphysical architecture: 60 meters high, with a base of 53, the Palazzo della Civiltà is presented on a project of Giovanni Guerrini, Ernesto Lapadula and Mario Romano Like a parallelepiped.
From an architectural point of view, this large palace (located on the top of the neighborhood and therefore clearly visible from multiple points of the city) is seen as an “example of compromise with the regime”, because it adheres strictly to monumentalistic spirit By now diffused in Italy in 15 years of fascism.
The structure, simple but solemn, is in reinforced concretecompletely covered with slabs of travertine: This material had in turn a political meaning because it was “Italian”, as required by the policies of economic self -sufficiency of the autarchy. This also made it easier to find: the use of iron and cement was in fact complicated by penalties imposed by the Nations Society following the brutal Italian invasion of Ethiopia.
With an explicit reference to Romanity and specifically to the Colosseum, it presents 54 facade arches9 arranged horizontally and 6 in the column: these numbers, reduced compared to the initial project, would correspond to those of the letters of the name and surname of the Duce, Benito (6) Mussolini (9). On the four newspapers there is a word out of three lines, in Roman monumental characters: “A people of poets by artists of heroes / of saints of thinkers of scientists / transmigrators navigators“, A quote from a speech that Mussolini held on October 2, 1935 by challenging the” unfair sanctions “imposed by the Nations Society.
On the ground floor they are found 28 Carrara marble statues 3.4 meters high each (6 for the facades towards the avenue of the civilization of the work and the staircase, and 8 in the other two facades) which symbolize The virtues and genius of the Italian people according to fascism: they are heroism, music, craftsmanship, political genius, social order, work, agriculture, philosophy, trade, industry, archeology, astronomy, history, inventive genius, architecture, law, the primacy of navigation, sculpture, mathematics, the theater genius, chemistry, printing, medicine, geography, physics, the genius of poetry, the genius of poetry. painting and military genius. Made by 26 sculptors, they would be had to be accompanied by a pictorial decoration Designed for the building, which however was never made due to the war.
At the four corners of the base there are as many monumental groups depicting the mythological figures of DioscuriCastore and Pollux, the two twin children of Zeus and Leda. These two equestrian couples (always in reinforced concrete covered with travertine) are the work of the artists Publio Morbiducci and Alberto Felci, and are thought of as renewed connection between the glorious history of Rome and fascist triumphs.
The outside and the ground floor hosted successful exhibitions, such as that of 2015 on the Italian twentieth century or that of 2023 dedicated to the sculptor Arnaldo Pomodoro, who recently passed away.
In the cinema, the “square Colosseum” has become background or quote from many filmsfrom Rome open city of Rossellini a The eclipse by Antonioni, from Eight and a half by Fellini a The architect’s belly by Peter Greenaway, up to Night before exams of Brizzi.
