ROME’S PALAZZO DELLA CIVILTA ITALIANA A MINIMAL MASTERPIECE
A palace of Italian art and culture could only be as grand as the Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana, exuding the magnificence of a glorious civilization.
Located in the heart of Rome’s EUR business district, the Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana is considered one of Italy’s architectural landmarks, and rightfully so. A glance at this stark rationalist structure will definitely remind of you of Ancient Rome. In fact, the building is also known as the “Square Colosseum” or “Colosseum Quadrato” inspired by the 70-80 AD amphitheatre.
‘A nation of poets, of artists, of heroes, of saints, of thinkers, of scientists, of navigators, of migrants’ reads the inscription at the top of the Palazzo and 28 marble statues symbolizing all facets of human achievement from poetry, philosophy and art to medicine, astronomy and trade stand tall ‘guarding’ the structure.
In architectural terms, the Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana is considered a modern-day wonder made of concrete and solid white travertine (a marble-like limestone) and serving as a contemporary version of the Colosseum as demonstrated by its stern symmetry and series of arches on all sides. But the six-storey Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana also has a shady past. Italy’s dictator Benito Mussolini commissioned architects Giovanni Guerrini, Ernesto Lapadula, and Mario Romano to design the building that would host the 1942 world exhibition in Rome. It never did however because construction work stopped abruptly with the start of World War II. The palazzo was completed after the war but fell to disuse for 60 years until Italian fashion house Fendi decided to renovate it in 2015 and move in giving it a new lease on life.
Since then, the minimal ‘Square Colosseum’ is a centrepiece of the EUR (Esposizione Universale Roma) district where many ministries, multinationals and major companies are based today.
Thanks to its otherworldly design, the ‘Square Colosseum’ has featured in several films including Peter Greenaway’s The Belly of an Architect, Roberto Rossellini’s Rome, Open City, and Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Conformist.
You can visit the Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana or even attend events there. In 2020, the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia Orchestra performed from the rooftop of Italy’s futuristic cube.
