Esposizione Universale Roma
Encyclopedia
EUR is a residential and business district in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

, located south of the city center. The area was originally chosen in 1930s
1930s
File:1930s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: Dorothea Lange's photo of the homeless Florence Thompson show the effects of the Great Depression; Due to the economic collapse, the farms become dry and the Dust Bowl spreads through America; The Battle of Wuhan during the Second Sino-Japanese...

 as the site for the 1942 world's fair
Esposizione universale (1942)
The Esposizione universale of 1942 was planned to be held in Rome.The government projected a new neighbourhood, on the south-west of Rome, called Esposizione Universale Roma, or EUR...

 which Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....

 planned to open to celebrate twenty years of Fascism
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...

. EUR was also designed to direct the expansion of the city towards the south-west and the sea, and to be a new city centre for Rome. The planned exhibition never took place due to World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

.

Most of the area is property of EUR S.p.A., a company owned by the Ministry of Economy and the Rome municipality.

History

The complex was planned to be home to a World Fair
World fair
World Fair can refer to:* Expo , a large public exhibition* This World Fair, an American rock band...

 to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the March on Rome
March on Rome
The March on Rome was a march by which Italian dictator Benito Mussolini's National Fascist Party came to power in the Kingdom of Italy...

 and the beginning of the Fascist era.
The autonomous agency responsible for organization and construction of the project, the E42 (Esposizione 1942), was created on 26 December 1936.

The general commissioner of the agency, Vittorio Cini, presented a list of the most prominent italian architects available to Mussolini. The list included Adalberto Libera
Adalberto Libera
Adalberto Libera is one of the most representative architects of the Italian Modern movement, which should not be confused with the Italian Rationalist movement, with which he only had a short-lived relationship....

, Enrico Del Debbio
Enrico Del Debbio
Enrico Del Debbio was an Italian architect and university professor.Born at Carrara, he studied in the Fine Art Academy there specializing in architecture; he moved to Rome in 1914 where he won several architectural awards. He also began to teach in the Scuola Superiore di Architettura...

, Giuseppe Terragni
Giuseppe Terragni
Giuseppe Terragni was an Italian architect who worked primarily under the fascist regime of Benito Mussolini and pioneered the Italian modern movement under the rubric of Rationalism...

, Giovanni Michelucci
Giovanni Michelucci
Giovanni Michelucci was an Italian architect, urban planner and engraver. He was one of the major Italian architects of the 20th century, known for notable projects such as the Firenze Santa Maria Novella railway station and the San Giovanni Battista church on the Autostrada del Sole....

, Eugenio Montuori and Giovanni Muzio
Giovanni Muzio
Giovanni Muzio was an Italian architect. Muzio was born and died in Milan and is most closely associated with the Novecento Italiano group....

. Among the large list, Marcello Piacentini
Marcello Piacentini
Marcello Piacentini was an Italian architect and urban theorist.-Biography:Born in Rome, he was the son of architect Pio Piacentini...

 (head of the project), Giuseppe Pagano Pogatschnig, Luigi Piccinato
Luigi Piccinato
Luigi Piccinato was an Italian architect and town planner.-Works:* Urbanistica medioevale, Firenze 1943 Luigi Piccinato (30 October 1899, Legnago, Veneto – 29 July 1983, Rome) was an Italian architect and town planner.-Works:* Urbanistica medioevale, Firenze 1943 Luigi Piccinato (30 October 1899,...

, Luigi Vietti and Ettore Rossi were chosen. The first project, on an area of 4 km² (1.5 sq mi), was presented in 1938.

The name was later changed in EUR and the final project was presented in 1939. However the Expo never took place due to the Second World War, and the original project was left uncompleted when the works had to stop in 1942.

After the war, the uncompleted EUR development was severely damaged. However, the Roman authorities found that EUR could be the onset of an out-of-town business district, which other capitals did not begin planning until decades later (London Docklands and La Défense
La Défense
La Défense is a major business district of the Paris aire urbaine. With a population of 20,000, it is centered in an orbital motorway straddling the Hauts-de-Seine département municipalities of Nanterre, Courbevoie and Puteaux...

 in Paris). Therefore, during the 1950s
1950s
The 1950s or The Fifties was the decade that began on January 1, 1950 and ended on December 31, 1959. The decade was the sixth decade of the 20th century...

 and 1960s
1960s
The 1960s was the decade that started on January 1, 1960, and ended on December 31, 1969. It was the seventh decade of the 20th century.The 1960s term also refers to an era more often called The Sixties, denoting the complex of inter-related cultural and political trends across the globe...

 the unfinished Fascist-era buildings were completed, and other new buildings were built in contemporary styles for use as offices and government buildings, set in large gardens and parks.

EUR was almost fully completed for the 1960 Olympics
1960 Summer Olympics
The 1960 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XVII Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event held from August 25 to September 11, 1960 in Rome, Italy...

, held in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

. At that time, most of the important infrastructures, such as the Palazzo dello Sport
PalaLottomatica
PalaLottomatica, formerly known as Palazzo dello Sport or PalaEUR, is a multi-purpose sports and entertainment arena in Rome, Italy. It is located in the heart of the well known modern EUR complex. The arena hosted the 1960 Olympic basketball tournamentsThe stadium features 8 meetings points, a...

 (designed by Nervi
Pier Luigi Nervi
Pier Luigi Nervi was an Italian engineer. He studied at the University of Bologna and qualified in 1913. Dr. Nervi taught as a professor of engineering at Rome University from 1946-61...

 and Piacentini
Marcello Piacentini
Marcello Piacentini was an Italian architect and urban theorist.-Biography:Born in Rome, he was the son of architect Pio Piacentini...

) and the Velodromo were completed.

The EUR development agency, born in 1936, became a Società per Azioni on 15 March 2000, and is still responsible for some aspects of management and organization of the area.

Architecture

The initial project was presented in 1938 under the direction of Marcello Piacentini. The design was inspired, according to the fascist
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...

 ideology
Ideology
An ideology is a set of ideas that constitutes one's goals, expectations, and actions. An ideology can be thought of as a comprehensive vision, as a way of looking at things , as in common sense and several philosophical tendencies , or a set of ideas proposed by the dominant class of a society to...

, to Roman Imperial
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....

 town planning, with modern elements which came from Italian rationalism
Rationalism (architecture)
The intellectual principles of rationalism are based on architectural theory. Vitruvius had already established in his work De Architectura that architecture is a science that can be comprehended rationally. This formulation was taken up and further developed in the architectural treatises of the...

, the result being a sort of simplified neoclassicism
Neoclassicism
Neoclassicism is the name given to Western movements in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that draw inspiration from the "classical" art and culture of Ancient Greece or Ancient Rome...

.

The project develops over orthogonal axes and large and stately buildings, built mainly of limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....

, tuff
Tuff
Tuff is a type of rock consisting of consolidated volcanic ash ejected from vents during a volcanic eruption. Tuff is sometimes called tufa, particularly when used as construction material, although tufa also refers to a quite different rock. Rock that contains greater than 50% tuff is considered...

 and marble
Marble
Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite.Geologists use the term "marble" to refer to metamorphosed limestone; however stonemasons use the term more broadly to encompass unmetamorphosed limestone.Marble is commonly used for...

, traditional materials associated with Roman Empire architecture.

The most representative building at EUR, and the symbol of this architectural style, is the Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana
Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana
The Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana, also known as the Palazzo della Civiltà del Lavoro or simply the Colosseo Quadrato , is an icon of Fascist architecture. It lies in the district of Rome known as the Esposizione Universale Roma...

(1938–1943), an iconic project which has since become known as the "Colosseo Quadrato" (Square Colosseum). The building was designed by Giovanni Guerrini, Ernesto Lapadula and Mario Romano, also inspired by Metaphysical art
Metaphysical art
Metaphysical art , style of painting that flourished mainly between 1911 and 1920 in the works of the Italian artists Giorgio de Chirico and Carlo Carrà. The movement began with Chirico, whose dreamlike works with sharp contrasts of light and shadow often had a vaguely threatening, mysterious quality...

.

Other notable buildings are:
  • Palazzo dei Ricevimenti e dei Congressi
  • Archivio Centrale dello Stato
  • Basilica parrocchiale dei Santi Pietro e Paolo
  • Office palace
  • INA and INPS palace


Several museums are also present. These comprise the Museo della Civiltà Romana  (Roman Culture Museum), the Museo Nazionale dell'Alto Medioevo (National Museum of the Middle Age
Middle age
Middle age is the period of age beyond young adulthood but before the onset of old age. Various attempts have been made to define this age, which is around the third quarter of the average life span of human beings....

) and the Museo Nazionale Preistorico Etnografico Luigi Pigorini (Prehistoric Ethnographic Museum). A new planetarium
Planetarium
A planetarium is a theatre built primarily for presenting educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky, or for training in celestial navigation...

, connected to the Astronomy Museum, opened in 2004.

EUR today

Today EUR is a residential and business district, headquarters of many private and public entities, such as Confindustria
Confindustria
Confindustria is the Italian employers' federation, founded in 1910. It groups together more than 113,000 voluntary member companies, accounting for nearly 4,200,000 individuals. It aims to help Italy's economic growth, assisting, in doing so, its members...

, the Ministry of Health
Ministry of Health (Italy)
The Ministry of Health is a governmental agency of Italy. Its headquarters are in Rome.-External links:* **...

, the Ministry of communications
Ministry of Communications (Italy)
The Ministry of Communications was a government ministry of the Republic of Italy, dealing with postal, telephone, telegraph and electronic communications, journalistic information and commercial advertising. Set up in 1924, since the Berlusconi IV Cabinet of 2008 it has been subsumed into the...

, the Ministry of the Environment
Ministry of the Environment (Italy)
The Ministry of the Environment and Protection of Land and Sea of Italy also known as MATTM, is an Italian ministry established in 1981. The ministry is responsible for environmental issues in Italy...

, the SIAE, the ICE institute, Eni
Eni
Eni S.p.A. is an Italian multinational oil and gas company, present in 70 countries, and currently Italy's largest industrial company with a market capitalization of 87.7 billion euros , as of July 24, 2008...

 company, Banca di Roma, Poste Italiane
Poste Italiane
Poste italiane S.p.A. is the government-owned postal service of Italy, headquartered in Rome.Besides providing core postal services, Poste Italiane Group offers integrated products, as well as communication, logistics and financial services in Italy....

, INAIL, INPS and many other multinational companies.

In popular culture

The Fascist architecture of EUR was prominently featured in Michelangelo Antonioni
Michelangelo Antonioni
Michelangelo Antonioni, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI was an Italian modernist film director, screenwriter, editor and short story writer.- Personal life :...

's 1962 film L'eclisse
L'eclisse
L'eclisse is a 1962 film directed by Michelangelo Antonioni. It is considered the last part of a trilogy which was preceded by L'avventura and La Notte....

. The location was also used as the headquarters of Mayflower Industries in the 1991 movie Hudson Hawk
Hudson Hawk
Hudson Hawk is a 1991 American action comedy film directed by Michael Lehmann. Bruce Willis stars in the title role and also co-wrote the story. Danny Aiello, Andie MacDowell, James Coburn, David Caruso, Lorraine Toussaint, Frank Stallone, Sandra Bernhard, and Richard E...

and served as a backdrop for scenes from the 1999 film adaptation of Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus
Titus (film)
Titus is a 1999 film adaptation of Shakespeare's revenge tragedy Titus Andronicus, about the downfall of a Roman general. It was the first film of the play . The film was made by Overseas Filmgroup and Clear Blue Sky Productions and released by Fox Searchlight Pictures...

.
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