PIACENTINI, MARCELLO

(1881–1960)

The son of a Roman architect, Marcello Piacentini is the best-known exponent of architecture celebrating the Fascist revolution, what he called the “national road to architecture.” Whether or not one approves of his politics, no one can dispute that Piacentini’s buildings were striking. His monument to victory in World War Iin German-speaking Bolzano is a physically massive reminder of the defeat that Austria had suffered. It remains intensely unpopular in Bolzano for this reason. His central administration building for Rome’s La Sapienza University is a huge edifice, with an imposing entrance flanked by monumental pillars. In 1938, Piacentini was given the task of building EUR (Esposizione Universale di Roma), a new town on the outskirts of Rome that would celebrate the 20th anniversary of the fascist revolution. The project was only completed after the war, but it contains buildings that were the culmination of Piacentini’s work. The Colosseo Quadrato, with its huge buildings, their flat facades all embedded with oppressively numerous rows of windows, is the concrete manifestation of the paintings of Giorgio De Chirico. EUR has an impact on the senses even today: fascist architecture recalls to us the gigantic ambitions (or delusions of grandeur) the regime had for the Italian people. Piacentini died in Rome in 1960.