Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-13T06:06:01.363Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Material Legacies: Italian modernism and the postwar history of case del fascio

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 May 2019

Lucy M. Maulsby
Lucy M. Maulsby*
Affiliation:
School of Architecture, Northeastern University, Boston, USA
*
*Email: l.maulsby@northeastern.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In recent decades, architectural historians, preservationists, and the general public have shown a growing interest in Fascist-era buildings. Many of the most high-profile examples are those associated with the monumental excesses of the regime. However, new attention has also been focused on more modest buildings that are significant examples of interwar Italian modernism or Rationalism, including former party headquarters (case del fascio). Taking as primary examples works by Giuseppe Terragni, the architect most often associated with Rationalism, as well by Luigi Carlo Danieri and Luigi Vietti, whose interwar contributions to Italian modernism have been less often the focus of scholarly attention, this article traces the postwar histories of case del fascio with the aim of better understanding the ways in which architecture and politics intersect and some of the consequences of this for the contemporary Italian architectural landscape.

Italian summary

Negli ultimi decenni, storici dell’architettura, conservazionisti e il pubblico in generale hanno mostrato un interesse sempre maggiore negli edifici risalenti al periodo fascista e ai principali eccessi del Regime sono stati associati molti edifici di alto profilo. Tuttavia, si dedica una nuova attenzione ad edifici più modesti che rappresentano esempi significativi, come le case del fascio, di un periodo tra la Prima e la Seconda guerra mondiale: il Modernismo italiano o Razionalismo. Verranno analizzati i primi esempi del lavoro di Giuseppe Terragni, l’architetto che più spesso viene associato al Razionalismo, così come Luigi Carlo Danieri e Luigi Vietti, al cui contributo interbellico al Modernismo italiano è stata data minore importanza in ambito accademico. Questo articolo ripercorre le storie delle case del fascio dopo la Seconda guerra mondiale con lo scopo di comprendere più approfonditamente come avvenne l’intersezione tra l’architettura e la politica del tempo. Verranno infine analizzate alcune conseguenze di questo periodo storico nel paesaggio architettonico dell’Italia contemporanea.

Keywords

modern architectureItalyFascismdifficult historiesadaptive reusearchitecture and politics.
Type
Special Issue
Information
Modern Italy , Volume 24 , Issue 2: Special Issue: The Difficult Heritage of Italian Fascism , May 2019 , pp. 159 - 177
Copyright
© 2019 Association for the Study of Modern Italy 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Archives

Archivio Centrale dello Stato (ACS)Google Scholar
Ministero delle Finanze (MF)Google Scholar
Partitio Nazionale Fascista (PNF)Google Scholar
National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)Google Scholar
Allied Forces Headquarters (AFHQ)Google Scholar
Journals and periodicalsGoogle Scholar
Architettura Google Scholar
Corriere della Sera Google Scholar
Casabella Costruzioni Google Scholar

References

Afletra, G. 1993. I 45 giorni che sconvolsero l’Italia. Milan: Rizzoli.Google Scholar
Artioli, A. 1989. Giuseppe Terragni: La Casa del Fascio di Como, guida critica all’edificio Rome: BetaGamma editrice.Google Scholar
Artioli, A. 1994. ‘La Casa del Fascio di Como: Necessità operative e scelte metodologiche di alcuni restauri (Giuseppe Terragni, 1932–1936)’. In L’Architettura Moderna Conoscenza, Tutela, Conservazione, edited by G. Guarisco, 104–105. Florence: Alinea.Google Scholar
Arthurs, J. 2015. ‘Settling Accounts: Retribution, Emotion and Memory’. Journal of Modern Italian Studies 20 (15): 617–639.Google Scholar
Banfi, G.L., Peressutti, E. and Rogers, E.N.. 1934. ‘La Casa del Fascio di Caravaggio’. Quadrante 20 (December): 18–19.Google Scholar
Belco, V. C. 2010. War, Massacre and Recovery in Central Italy, 1943–1948. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Benton, T. 1999. ‘From the Arengario to the Lictor’s Axe: Memories of Italian Fascism’. In Material Memories, edited by M. Kwint, C. Breward and J, Aynsley, 199–218. Oxford: Berg.Google Scholar
Benton, T., ed. 2010. Understanding Heritage and Memory. New York: Manchester University Press with The Open University.Google Scholar
Ben-Ghiat, R. 2017. ‘Why are so many Fascist monuments still standing in Italy?’ The New Yorker, 5 October.Google Scholar
Biscossa, F. 1986. ‘Dalla casa del popolo alla casa del fascio’. In Case del popolo: un architettura monumentale del moderno, edited by M. De Michelis, 175–224. Venice: Marsilio.Google Scholar
Caponi, C. 1960. ‘Mussolini a Cavallo’. In Prato storia e arte, 36–40. Prato: Associazione Turistica Pratese.Google Scholar
Carminati, S. 2006. ‘La casa del fascio di Lissone, ora palazzo Terragni’. Arte Lombarda 146/148 (1–3): 302–304.Google Scholar
Carter, N. and Martin, S.. 2017. ‘The Management and Memory of Fascist Monumental Art in Postwar and Contemporary Italy: the Case of Luigi Montanarini’s Apotheosis of Fascism ’. Journal of Modern Italian Studies 22 (3): 346–347.Google Scholar
Castillo, G. 2010. Cold War on the Home Front: the Soft Power of Mid-century Design. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Ciucci, G. 1989. Gli architetti e il Fascismo: architettura e città. Turin: Einaudi.Google Scholar
Ciucci, G. ed. 1996. Giuseppe Terragni: opera completa. Milan: Electa.Google Scholar
Corriere di Como 2017. ‘L’Appello: “Un museo razionalista nella casa del fascio”’, 23 February. https://www.corrieredicomo.it/lappello-un-museo-razionalista-nella-casa-del-fascio/.Google Scholar
Costruzioni [pseudo.] 1941. ‘Sacrario dei caduti fascisti nella nuova federazione di Milano’. Costruzioni Casabella 157 (January): 44–45.Google Scholar
Dell’Aria, P.V. 1997. Luigi Vietti: progetti e realizzazioni degli anni 30. Florence: Alinea.Google Scholar
Domenico, R. P. 1991. Italian Fascists on Trial, 1943–48. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Dondi, M. 1999. La lunga liberazione: giustizia e violenza nel dopoguerra. Rome: Editori Riuniti.Google Scholar
Doordan, D. 1988. Building Modern Italy: Italian Architecture, 1914–1936. New York: Princeton Architectural Press.Google Scholar
Duggan, C. 1995. ‘Italy in the Cold War Years and the Legacy of Fascism’. In Italy in the Cold War, Politics, Culture and Society 1948–1958, edited by C. Duggan and C. Wagstaff, 1–24. Washington D.C: Berg.Google Scholar
Duran, A. 2017. Painting, Politics, and the New Front of Cold War Italy. Routledge.Google Scholar
Etlin, R. 1991. Modernism in Italian Architecture, 1890–1940. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Fuller, M. 2018. ‘Equivocal Mussolinis: What the Proposed Predappio Museum Can Learn from the Piana delle Orme Collection’. Politika 20 November. https://www.politika.io/fr/notice/equivocal-mussolinis#1 Google Scholar
G, B. 1941. ‘La Casa del Fascio di Lissone’. Casabella Costruzioni 162 (June): 4–11.Google Scholar
Gamboni, D. 1997. The Destruction of Art: Iconoclasm and Vandalism since the French Revolution. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997.Google Scholar
Genova 24.it 2017. ‘L’Agenzia del Demanio ha trasferito l’ex ‘Casa del Soldato’ al Comune di Genova’, 5 May. https://www.genova24.it/2017/05/lagenzia-del-demanio-trasferito-lex-casa-del-soldato-al-comune-genova-179424/ (accessed 7 September 2018).Google Scholar
Ghirardo, D. 1980a. ‘Politics of a Masterpiece: the Vicenda of the Façade Decoration, the Casa del Fascio, Como, 1938–1939’. The Art Bulletin 62 (3): 466–478.Google Scholar
Ghirardo, D. 1980b. ‘Italian Architects and Fascist Politics: an Evaluation of the Rationalist’s Role in Regime Building’. Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 39 (2): 109–127.Google Scholar
Ghirardo, D. 1982. ‘Architecture and the State: Fascist Italy and New Deal America’. PhD diss., Stanford University.Google Scholar
Ghirardo, D. 1996. ‘Terragni e gli storici: vicende nella tipologia e nella politica della Casa del Fascio di Como’. In Giuseppe Terragni: opera completa, edited by G. Ciucci, 257–265. Milan: Electa.Google Scholar
Ghirardo, D. 2013. Italy. London: Reaktion.Google Scholar
Ginsborg, P. 2003. A History of Contemporary Italy: Society and Politics, 1943–1988. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Gli Anni Trenta: Arte e cultura in Italia , 1982 exhibition catalogue. Milan: Mazzotta.Google Scholar
von Henneberg, K. 2004. ‘Monuments, Public Space, and the Memory of Empire in Modern Italy’. History and Memory 16 (1): 37–85.Google Scholar
Hokerberg, H. 2017. ‘The Monument to Victory in Bolzano: Desacralization of a Fascist Relic’. International Journal of Heritage Studies 23 (8): 759–774.Google Scholar
La Provincia 2014. ‘Casa del Fascio Terragni: “Mai al Comune, ma esperti”’. 21 August. https://www.laprovinciadicomo.it/stories/Cronaca/casa-del-fascio-il-nipote-di-terragni-mai-al-comune-servono-esperti_1074226_11/ (accessed 24 March 2017)Google Scholar
La Stampa 2012. ‘Verbania, il consiglio torna a palazzo Flaim’. 25 June. https://www.lastampa.it/2012/06/25/verbania/verbania-il-consiglio-torna-a-palazzo-flaim-tKJQZmoIbtzfynomBlGxMM/pagina.html (accessed 14 December 2018)Google Scholar
Lindgrin, H. 2003. ‘A Little Fascist Architecture Goes a Long Way’. New York Times 12 October.Google Scholar
Luzzatto, S. (1998) 2005. The Body of Il Duce: Mussolini’s Corpse and the Fortunes of Italy. New York: Metropolitan Books.Google Scholar
Macor, M. 2017. ‘Passa al comune l’ex Casa del Soldato a Sturla’. R.it, Genova, 16 March. https://genova.repubblica.it/cronaca/2017/03/16/news/passa_al_comune_l_ex_casa_del_soldato_a_sturla-160719851/?ref=search (accessed 4 October 2018)Google Scholar
Malone, H. 2017. ‘Legacies of Fascism: Architecture, Heritage and Memory in Contemporary Italy’. Modern Italy 22 (4): 445–470.Google Scholar
Mangione, F. 2003. Le Case del Fascio in Italia e nelle terre d’oltremare. Rome: Publicazione degli Archivi di Stato.Google Scholar
Maulsby, L.M. 2014a. Fascism, Architecture and the Claiming of Modern Milan, 1922–1943. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Maulsby, L.M. 2014b. ‘Drinking from the River Lethe: Case del Fascio and the legacy of Fascism in Postwar Italy.’ Future Anterior XI (2): 18–39.Google Scholar
Mitterhofer, J. 2013. ‘Competing Narratives on the Future of Contested Heritage: a Case Study of Fascist Monuments in Contemporary South Tyrol, Italy’. Heritage and Society 6 (1): 46–61.Google Scholar
Nicoloso, P. 2009. Architetture per un’identita italiana. Udine: Gaspari.Google Scholar
Pavone, C. 1991. Una guerra civile. Saggio storico sulla moralità nella Resistenza. Turin: Bollati Boringhieri.Google Scholar
Paretti, L. 2015. ‘Verbania documenti: “Il Palazzo Flaim”’. Verbania Notizie, 13 December. http://www.verbanianotizie.it/n495263-verbania-documenti-il-palazzo-flaim.htm.Google Scholar
Pirotta, S. 2010. ‘Giorno della Memoria, una targa per celebrare la “rinascita”’. Corriere della Sera, 27 January.Google Scholar
Po., A. 1939. ‘Una Casa Littoria a Genova-Sturla’. Casabella Costruzioni 133 (January): 20–25. Quadrante 35/36 (October 1936).Google Scholar
Punzo, M. B. 1979. ‘Il CLN della città di Milano e sobborghi’. In Milano fra guerra e dopoguerra, edited by G. Bonvini and A. Scalpelli, 207–218. Bari: De Donato.Google Scholar
Rifkind, D. 2012. The Battle for Modernism: Quadrante and the Politization of Architectural Discourse in Fascist Italy. Venice: Centro Internazionale di Studi di Architettura Andrea Palladio/Marsilio.Google Scholar
Rosadini, F. 2003. Luigi Carlo Danieri: Razionalista a Genova. Turin: Testo e Immagine.Google Scholar
Rosenfeld, G.D. 2000. Munich and Memory: Architecture, Monuments, and the Legacy of the Third Reich. Los Angeles: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Steinacher, G. 2013. ‘Fascist Legacies: the controversy over Mussolini’s Monuments in South Tyrol’. European Yearbook of Minority Issues (10): 647–666.Google Scholar
Scrivano, P. 2013. Building Transatlantic Italy: Architectural Dialogues with Postwar America. Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Ugolini, M. 1994. Giuseppe Terragni: la casa del fascio di Lissone. Momenti di Architettura Moderna. Florence: Alinea Editrice.Google Scholar
Ugolini, M. and Zilioli, A., 1994. ‘Il Restauro della Casa del Fascio di Lissone (Giuseppe Terragni–Antionio Carminati, 1938–1939). In L’Architettura Moderna Conoscenza, Tutela, Conservazione, edited by G. Guarisco, 108–109. Florence: Alinea.Google Scholar