Italian 20th-century architecture produced some of the most ambitious buildings of the rationalist and brutalist traditions — and most of them are in Rome, within 20 minutes of the standard tourist circuit. The EUR district (Esposizione Universale Roma, begun 1937 for the never-held 1942 World's Fair, inhabited from the 1950s) is the most complete surviving Fascist-rationalist urban project: wide symmetrical boulevards, travertine marble-clad buildings, and the Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana (universally known as the Colosseo Quadrato — the square Colosseum — with 216 identical arched windows in a perfect six-storey travertine block). Pier Luigi Nervi (1891-1979) created the most structurally innovative Italian buildings of the century: the Palazzetto dello Sport (1957) and the Palazzo dello Sport (1960) demonstrate reinforced concrete used as an architectural expression of structural logic. The Corviale (958 metres long, Rome, 1975-1982) is the most discussed Italian social housing project: a single building designed to replace an entire neighbourhood. Rome architecture
Plan my Italy trip →EUR district: Begun 1937; Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana (Colosseo Quadrato) the centrepiece; Metro B EUR Palasport/EUR Fermi | Corviale: Rome, 1975-1982; 958m long; western Rome, accessible by bus | Palazzetto dello Sport: Pier Luigi Nervi, 1957; Flaminio area; free exterior | Palazzo dello Sport: Nervi, 1960; EUR district; free exterior | Fendi HQ: Now occupies Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana; exterior freely photographed
The EUR (Esposizione Universale Roma) district was commissioned by Mussolini in 1937 for the planned 1942 World's Fair marking the 20th anniversary of Fascism. The design team (Marcello Piacentini, Gaetano Minnucci, Luigi Vietti) created an entirely new urban district 10 km south of Rome on the Via Laurentina: wide symmetrical axial boulevards, a central lake, and a series of large public buildings clad in travertine limestone — the specific Fascist-rationalist aesthetic that combined Modernist building volumes and structural techniques with classical Roman decorative vocabulary. The fair never occurred (Italy entered the Second World War in 1940); the partially complete buildings were abandoned until the 1950s when the Republican government decided to complete the EUR as a government administrative and residential district — pragmatism overcoming political discomfort.
The Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana (Palazzo della Civiltà del Lavoro, 1938-1943, architects Giovanni Guerrini, Ernesto Bruno La Padula, Mario Romano) — the Colosseo Quadrato — is a 54-metre-tall travertine block with 216 identical arched window openings (9 arches per side × 6 floors × 4 sides). The Colosseum reference is deliberate and inverted: where the Colosseum is curved and theatrical, the Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana is square and monumental. The base inscription: 'Un popolo di poeti di artisti di eroi, di santi di pensatori di scienziati di navigatori di trasmigratori' (A people of poets, artists, heroes, saints, thinkers, scientists, navigators and migrants). Currently the Italian headquarters of Fendi (acquired 2015). The exterior is freely accessible and photographable from the surrounding piazza at all hours; interior visits by appointment only. Accessible by Metro B (EUR Palasport stop). Rome guide
Pier Luigi Nervi (1891-1979) was the most technically innovative Italian architect-engineer of the 20th century — his work in reinforced concrete (particularly the thin-shell technique using ferrocement, small-diameter steel mesh in cement mortar) produced buildings where structural efficiency became formal expression. The Rome Nervi buildings: the Palazzetto dello Sport (1957, Viale Tiziano, Flaminio district — a 3,000-seat sports hall with a ribbed concrete dome pre-cast in 1,620 diamond-shaped coffers on site and then assembled; the 36 Y-shaped exterior supports hold the dome from beneath; the structural system is the architecture); the Palazzo dello Sport (1960, EUR district, 16,000-seat capacity — the larger companion building with the more dramatic fluted concrete dome; the exterior visible from the EUR lake). Both buildings have free exterior access; the interior is occasionally accessible during sports events at the Palazzetto. Nervi's international projects: the UNESCO Headquarters Conference Hall (Paris, 1958) and the Pirelli Tower (Milan, 1956-1960, with Gio Ponti) extended his structural innovation beyond Rome.
EUR (Esposizione Universale Roma) is a Rome district 10 km south of the city centre, begun in 1937 by Mussolini for the planned 1942 World's Fair (never held). Completed by the Republican government from the 1950s. The most complete surviving Fascist-rationalist urban project: symmetrical boulevards, travertine buildings, the Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana (Colosseo Quadrato — 216 identical arched windows in a 6-storey travertine block; now Fendi HQ). Accessible by Metro B (EUR Palasport and EUR Fermi). Also contains the Palazzo and Palazzetto dello Sport by Pier Luigi Nervi.
The Corviale (Via Poggio Verde, western Rome) is a 958-metre-long social housing megablock designed by architect Mario Fiorentino, constructed 1975-1982. The concept: a single linear building replacing an entire neighbourhood, with a 4th-floor public commercial street (shops, services) running the full 958-metre length — a 'city within a building.' The commercial street was never implemented; the 4th floor void is now occupied by squatted residences and studios. Approximately 6,000-8,000 residents in approximately 1,200 apartments. Accessible by bus from central Rome (not a tourist destination but visible from the surrounding area); the Corviale is a working residential building, not a heritage site.
Pier Luigi Nervi (1891-1979) was Italy's most technically innovative architect-engineer — his work in reinforced concrete and ferrocement (thin-shell concrete using small-diameter steel mesh) produced buildings of structural efficiency and formal elegance. Key Rome Nervi works: Palazzetto dello Sport (1957, Flaminio — ribbed concrete dome, 3,000 seats, the structural system is the architecture); Palazzo dello Sport (1960, EUR — 16,000 seats, larger companion building). International: UNESCO Conference Hall Paris (1958); Pirelli Tower Milan (1956-1960, with Gio Ponti). The Nervi family also designed the Pirelli skyscraper — the first Italian building taller than the Milan Cathedral's Madonnina (when built).
Italian rationalist architecture (1920s-1940s) was Italy's version of European modernism — the International Style filtered through a nationalist and eventually Fascist cultural programme. Key figures: Giuseppe Terragni (the Casa del Fascio, Como, 1936 — the most purely rationalist Italian building; now the Guardia di Finanza HQ but the exterior and courtyard visible); Adalberto Libera (the Palazzo dei Congressi, EUR, 1954; the Malaparte House on Capri, 1938 — the most photographed Italian modern building); and Giovanni Michelucci (Florence Santa Maria Novella station, 1935 — the finest Italian rationalist public building, still the main Florence station). The specific Italian rationalist tension: the Fascist regime promoted a modernism that used modern construction with classical formal references.
Best Italian brutalist and modern architecture in Milan: the Pirelli Tower (1956-1960, Gio Ponti and Nervi — 32 storeys, the first Italian skyscraper, still the most elegant tall building in Milan); the Torre Velasca (1958, BBPR Studio — the most controversial Italian post-war building, a 26-storey tower with a Gothic-influenced corbelled crown inspired by the Castello Sforzesco); the Galfa Tower (1956-1959, Melchiorre Bega — a second Milanese skyscraper of the same era); and the Quartiere Gallaratese (1969-1974, Aldo Rossi — the most internationally influential Italian post-war housing block, the basis for Rossi's international reputation in rationalist urbanism).
EUR Colosseo Quadrato by Metro B + Palazzetto dello Sport Nervi Flaminio + Corviale megablock western Rome + Casa del Fascio Como Como.
Plan my trip →The Foro Italico (originally the Foro Mussolini, 1927-1932, architect Enrico Del Debbio, expanded by Luigi Moretti) is the most intact surviving Fascist sports complex in Italy — and in practical daily use, since it still houses the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI), the Stadio Olimpico (capacity 72,698, the Rome Olympic stadium built for the 1960 Olympics and used by AS Roma and Lazio FC), and the Stadio dei Marmi (the open-air marble statue sports stadium, with 60 white marble athlete statues around the running track perimeter — the most specifically Fascist-aesthetic outdoor space in Rome). The Foro Italico is freely accessible and open to the public at all hours; the marble mosaic floors (depicting the Fascist regime history and athletic achievement) are the most explicit surviving Fascist iconographic public space in Italy.
The specific Fascist-era building in Rome that most visitors walk on without knowing: the Via dei Fori Imperiali was built by Mussolini in 1932, cutting through the Imperial Forum archaeological zone (and deliberately covering the Forum of Nerva and portions of Trajan's Forum) to create a processional boulevard from the Piazza Venezia to the Colosseum. The Ventennale inscription that Mussolini placed on the buildings along the boulevard (the maps of the Roman Empire at its various territorial maxima, compared implicitly to the Fascist Empire) are still visible on the walls along the Via dei Fori Imperiali — the maps of the Roman Empire from the Romulus-era city to the maximum extent under Trajan, with the implication that Mussolini was continuing the Roman expansion programme.
EUR is worth visiting for: the Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana exterior (the Colosseo Quadrato, the most photogenic Fascist-rationalist building in Italy, free, stunning in evening light — accessible by Metro B EUR Palasport); the Palazzo dello Sport and Palazzetto dello Sport by Nervi (free exterior, the finest Italian reinforced concrete structures of the 20th century); and the Museo della Civiltà Romana (currently undergoing renovation — check reopening at museociviltaromana.it; the plaster cast model of ancient Rome at 1:250 scale is the most comprehensive visual document of the ancient city). Allow 2-3 hours for the full EUR architectural circuit. Best time: evening when the Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana is lit and the travertine glows.
The Stadio dei Marmi (Stadium of Marble, 1927-1932, architect Enrico Del Debbio) at the Foro Italico is an open-air running track stadium surrounded by 60 monumental white Carrara marble statues of athletes — each representing a different Italian sport or province. The statues (5 metres tall, produced by different Italian sculptors, all depicting ideal male athletes in the Fascist aesthetic of classical revival heroism) create the most specifically Fascist-aesthetic public outdoor space in Rome. Free access during day hours. The Foro Italico is adjacent to the Stadio Olimpico (1960 Rome Olympics venue, still used by AS Roma and Lazio) — the two form a specific Italian 20th-century sports heritage and architectural circuit accessible from the Lungotevere.
The Palazzo dei Congressi (EUR district, Rome, architect Adalberto Libera, designed 1938, completed 1954) is the most architecturally refined of the EUR buildings — a rectangular exhibition and conference hall of travertine with a central glass-and-concrete dome supported on a minimal drum. Libera is also the architect of the Malaparte House on Capri (1938), the most photographed Italian modernist building. The Palazzo dei Congressi is still in active use as a convention centre; the exterior (the colonnaded travertine facade on the Via Colombo) is freely accessible and is the most specifically classical-rationalist facade in the EUR. The building is directly adjacent to the EUR lake, which reflects it on calm days.