060608


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Typology: Buildings

Address

Address: Quadrato della Concordia
Zone: Quartiere Europa EUR (Roma sud)

Opening times

The building hosts the management and offices of Fendi

Description

The Palazzo della Civiltà del Lavoro, known today more as the Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana or the "Square Colosseum", was built starting in 1938 as part of the great urban intervention that led to the construction of the EUR district.

In 1940 the fascist regime wanted a first inauguration, even if the building was still to be completed. The construction work was interrupted in 1943, due to the war, and only resumed in 1951. Following a public competition, a jury presided over by Marcello Piacentini chose the design by architects Giovanni Guerrini, Ernesto La Padula and Mario Romano, who thus celebrated the arch motif as a typical representative of Italian and Roman civilisation in particular by repeating it 216 times on the four identical elevations.

The building was originally intended to be made of brick, but for economic reasons it was made of reinforced concrete and entirely covered with travertine. On either side of the two staircases are four sculptural groups by Publio Morbiducci depicting the Dioscuri. The 28 statues housed under the arches of the first order represent "arts and human activities". At the top the inscription: "A people of poets, artists, heroes, saints, thinkers, scientists, navigators and transmigrators".

The Square Coliseum with its rational and metaphysical architecture has become the backdrop or a quotation in many films, from Rossellini's Roma città aperta to Antonioni's L'Eclisse, from Fellini's Otto e mezzo to Peter Greenaway's Il ventre dell'architetto and Brizzi's Notte prima degli esami.
Last checked: 2023-08-07 10:37