La Questione Romana:
Italian (Royal) Rome v. Papal (Black) Rome
Pius IX: 1846-1878
Neoguelphism: federation of Italian states under presidency of
Pope
1848-1849 Roman Republic of Mazzini & Garibaldi
New Constitution for Piedmont
1860 Piedmont invades and occupies Papal States
1864 September Convention: Withdrawal of French troops from Rome
1864 Syllabus of Errors: papal condemnation of modern society
against freedom of speech, freedom of
thought
1869 Vatican Council (declaration of Papal infallibility)
1870 September 20 Italian occupation of Rome
Pope declares himself prisoner in the
Vatican
1871 Law of Guarantees to regulate Italian/Papal relations
Roma capitale (1870) and urbanistic palimpsest
Royal Rome vs. Papal (black)
Rome
• Urbanistic propaganda:
Anti-clerical / Risorgimento monumentalit
A)
Modernization of the city:
•
wider streets, urban
renewal, new modern neighborhoods
B)
Occupation of church property by Italian government
C) Monuments to Risorgimento
heroes and “liberi pensatori”
(free thinkers)
•
Giordano Bruno (Campo dei Fiori) Cola di Rienzo (base
of Capitoline Hill)
D) Monumental structures to compete with Papal Rome
Monument to Victore Emmanule
II -- the wedding cake
Post-Risorgimento disillusionment
Distrust of parliamentarian government, trasformismo
Class unrest: Socialist Party 1892 / Communist Party 1920
Imperialism: loss of Tunisia to France in 1881
WW I and the “vittoria mutilata”
or mutilated victory
Italian Futurism, founded by Filippo Tommaso
Marinetti, 1909
Gabriele D’Annunzio (1863-1938): Founder of new Latin type
-- Italian Nationalist Association (founded 1910): proletarian colonialism
-- Giovanni Gentile, Ethical Fascism and the Totalitarian State
Mussolini and Italian
Fascism, 1922-1945
Marinetti: “Portrait of
Mussolini” (1929)
"Mussolini has an
exuberant, overwhelming, swift temperament. He is free. His patriotism is physiological
because physically he is built all’italiana, forged, carved to the model of the mighty rocks of our peninsula.
Square crushing jaws, massive rock-like head, but ultradynamic
eyes that dart with the speed of automobiles racing on the Lombard plains. The
baldness of an electric lamp. His masterful head is like a squared-off
projectile, a package full of good gunpowder, the cubic will of the State.
Teeth of steel. His will splits the crowd like a swift antisubmarine boat, an
exploding torpedo."
Fascist myth of Rome (romanita’)
• “We dream of a Roman Italy, that is to
say wise, strong, disciplined, and imperial. Much of that which was the
immortal spirit of Rome is reborn in Fascism: the Fasces are Roman; our organization
of combat is Roman, our pride and our courage are Roman: Civis romanus sum. [I
am a Roman citizen.] Now, it is necessary that the
history of tomorrow, the history we fervently wish to create, not represent a
contrast or a parody of the history of yesterday. Ours is not a nostalgic
contemplation of the past, but hard preparation for the future. Rome is
our starting point and our reference point; it is our symbol, or if you will
our Myth. The Romans were not only combatants,
but also formidable constructors who could challenge Time, and so shall we."
• The Fascist Credo
• “I believe in eternal Rome, mother of my
Country—And in Italy her firstborn—Who was born from her virgin womb through
the grace of God—Who suffered under the barbarian invaders, was crucified, died
and buried—Who descended into the grave, rose from the dead in the 19th
century— Who rose in glory to Heaven in 1918 and 1922—Who sits at the right
hand of Mother Rome—Who will come from there to judge the evil and the dead—I
believe in the genius of Mussolini—In our Holy Father Fascism and in the
communion of the martyrs—In the conversion of Italians and—In the resurrection
of the Empire.—Amen.”
• ITALIAN FASCISM
• --Nationalist: An authoritarian dictatorship that sees the
nation (state or race) as the regulator of all history and life based on
indisputable authority of the leader.
• --Antidemocratic: It rejects the
“spirit” of democracy with its emphasis on individual liberty and equality (it
is the nation which is absolute). It replaces “Liberty, Equality,
Fraternity,” with the slogan “To believe, to obey, to fight.” (“Credere, Obbedire, Combattere”).
• --Militarist: The combination of
an unquestioning faith and of a virile combativeness was to transform the
nation into a permanently mobilized armed force to conquer, maintain, and
expand power.
• --Totalitarian: The faith in the
nation and the state take on a religious quality in which dissent is not
permitted.
• “We must liberate all of ancient Rome
from the mediocre construction that disfigures it--the millennial monuments of
our history must loom gigantic in their necessary solitude --but side by side
with the Rome of antiquity and Christianity we must also create the monumental
Rome of the 20th Century. Rome cannot, must not, be solely a
modern city, in the by now banal sense of that word; it must be a city worthy
of its glory, and that glory must be revived tirelessly to pass it on as the
legacy of the Fascist era to generations to come.... In five years Rome must
appear marvelous to all the people of the world: vast, ordered, powerful
as it was in the time of the first emperor Augustus.
The Third Rome must spread onto other hills along the shores of the sacred
river until the beaches of the Tyrrhenian Sea. A straight highway which
must be the longest and widest in the world will move the incentive of mare
nostrum from the
resurrected port of Ostia to the very heart of the city.”
Fascist urban planning
(1922-43) Myth
of Rome (romanita’)
Creation of Fascist
thoroughfares (sventramento)
Isolation of Ancient Monuments in their grandeur / juxtaposed
to new Fascist Rome
Mausoleum
of Augustus
Mussolini’s building
projects Construction
of New Fascist Rome
Vatican approach:
Via della Conciliazione
Via dei
fori imperiali (marches
troops in front of Colosseum)
North: Foro Italico (begun 1928) stadium
South:
EUR Esposizione
Universale Romana: (new
city outside Rome)
Inscription on Palazzo della Civilta'
Un popolo
di poeti, di artisti di eroi (A people of poets, artists, heroes
Di santi
di pensatori di scienziata (Of
saints, of thinkers, of scientists
Di navigatori di trasmigratori
(Of navigators, of aviators
Successors to the fascist
party in Italy
MSI Movimento
sociale Italiano
Alleanza Nazionale (current right wing party)