Legacies of Fascism: architecture, heritage and memory in contemporary Italy

Abstract

This article examines how Italy has dealt with the physical remains of the Fascist regime, as a window onto Italian attitudes to the past. Theventennioleft indelible marks on Italy’s cities in the form of urban projects, individual buildings, monuments, plaques and street names. In effect, the survival of physical traces contrasts with the hazy memories of Fascism that exist within the Italian collective consciousness. Conspicuous, yet mostly ignored, Italy’s Fascist heritage is hidden in plain sight. However, from the 1990s, buildings associated with the regime have sparked a number of debates regarding the public memory of Fascism. Although these debates present an opportunity to re-examine history, they may also be symptomatic of a crisis in the Italian polity and of attempts to rehabilitate Fascism through historical revisionism.

The ex-Casa del Fascio in Predappio and the question of the “difficult heritage” of Fascism in contemporary Italy

“…From the analysis of the minutes of town council meetings and the correspondence between the mayors of Predappio and the state over more than 50 years, the management of Fascist architectural heritage in Italy emerges as a complex and multi-faceted process, encompassing financial factors, practical arrangements, changes in legislation and the often complicated relationship between the state and local authorities. If, as Hannah Malone argues, the processes through which buildings were preserved, altered or destroyed after the fall of Fascism reflected selections, omissions and revisions in the historical narrative of Fascism (Malone 2017, 447), the ex-Casa del Fascio of Predappio is an example of Italy’s uncertain, unsystematic, and often unplanned approach to Fascist architectural heritage. Since the fall of the regime, Predappio has had to deal with an architectural legacy that has been too large, conspicuous, and expensive with respect to the size and financial resources of the town.…”

“…Despite intense scholarly interest in Fascist culture and a vast literature on the architecture of the interwar years, 1 scant attention has been paid to the destiny of Fascist buildings in the postwar, post-fascist period. Only recently, a number of studies have focused on the postwar legacies of Fascist art (Pieri 2013; Storchi 2013; Giorio 2014; Maulsby 2014a; Versari 2011, 2016, and 2017; Carter and Martin 2017) and only a small, though significant, number of studies have dealt with the artistic and architectural legacies of the Fascist regime in the context of recent debates on the notions of ‘difficult’ or ‘dissonant’ heritage (Arthurs 2010; Mitterhofer 2013; Malone 2015 and 2017; Carter and Martin 2017; Hökerberg 2017). 2…”

The anatomy of controversy, from Charlottesville to Rome

“…Unlike Germany, where Nazi symbolism was eradicated from the public sphere, the Italian landscape remains littered with reminders of the Ventennio . Some lie ignored; some have become objects of far-right pilgrimage and veneration; and some are celebrated as contributions to national patrimony (Malone 2017; Arthurs 2010). While Ben-Ghiat did not call for the monuments’ removal, she expressed unease over Italians’ ‘comfort with living amid Fascist symbols’ and their apparent willingness to overlook troubling historical associations while lauding aesthetic achievement.…”

Between censure and celebration: the decorative plan of the Casa Madre dei Mutilati in Rome (1926-1939)

“…The material form of Fascist-era art and architecture stands in contrast to the absence of public memories and, generally speaking, it mirrors the selections, omissions and revisions of the postwar historical narrative (Malone 2017, 446–447; Maulsby 2014, 29). It can be destroyed, neglected or reused (Malone 2017), aestheticised or erased (Benton 2010, 156), but the Casa Madre is more complex: it straddles categories and demonstrates how public memory can be kept separate and allowed continuity. The Casa Madre manages the ‘bad’ memories associated with Italy’s Fascist regime by reclaiming its original meaning for its specific group in society – the mutilati.…”