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Coordinates: 41°56′03″N 12°27′27″E / 41.934290°N 12.457380°E / 41.934290; 12.457380
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Stadio dei Marmi

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Stadio dei Marmi (1932), Foro Italico, Rome Italy

The Stadio dei Marmi ("Stadium of the Marbles") is one of four stadiums in the colossal sports complex, the Foro Italico initially named Foro Mussolini. [1] The other stadiums are the Stadio Olimpico, the Stadio del tennis Romano, and the Stadio Olimpico del Nuoto. [2]It was designed in the 1920s as a complement to the annexed Fascist Academy of Physical Education (now the seat of CONI, Italian Olympic Committee), to be used by its students for training. [3] The Stadio dei Marmi first opened in 1932, on the 10th anniversary of the March on Rome, near the Roman neighborhood Monte Mario, by the architect Enrico del Debbio, under the Fascist ruler Benito Mussolini. [1] The Stadio dei Marmi is encircled by sixty, 4 meter tall Carrara marble, classical style, statues of magnificent athletes. [2] The stadium was built to celebrate Fascist accomplishments and the Gioventú del Littorio, the youth movement of the National Fascist Party of Italy. [1] In the twenty year reign, the Fascist regime used sports to introduce and instill new fascist traditions, ideals, customs, and values, with the end motive and goal of forming citizen warriors. [4] The Stadio dei Marmi was used to host some of the field hockey preliminaries for the 1960 Summer Olympics and also hosted the opening ceremony for the 2009 World Aquatics Championships.

60, 4 meter tall, Carrara marble athletic sculptures ring around the stadium, produced by 24 artists and sculptors during the Fascist regime

History

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Stadio dei Marmi - a military parade during the Fascist (Mussolini) regime

Early on, the Fascist movement saw the potential of using sports to promote its political and economic ideologies.[5] Immediately after the March on Rome, the Fascist regime invested in large-scale sport arenas, buildings, and institutions, such as the Stadio dei Marmi which made sports accessible to all classes of society.[6] Through sports, Fascist institutions emphasized and promoted Fascist values, which developed a national identity. [6] The common and valued sports included combat sports, such as boxing, greco-Roman wrestling, and javelin, hammer, or stone throwing. [7] Through physical education and sports, the Fascist government aimed to create professional militia and warriors, who would readily enter war. [7] Mussolini began the construction of the Foro Italico in 1928 as the central sports city and, in 1932, he opened the Instituto Superior Fascista di Educazione (Fascist Institute for Physical Education) as the first all-male athletic institution. [8] The importance that the Fascist regime placed on male physical education highlighted the characteristics of the ideal fascist citizen as well as the rigid gender binaries it instilled within the Italian culture. [9] After its unveiling, the Stadio dei Marmi became the leading physical education training center for the Gioventú Italiana Littorio, the youth movement of the National Fascist Party of Italy. [10] During the Fascist period, the Stadio dei Marmi and sports complex became the nation's center for athleticism and increasingly renowned till Italy joined the war in 1940. [8] "As a whole, the Mussolini Forum was designed to forge educators and political leaders united by an Italian - Fascist - sensibility about the past, present, and future of the race,". [8]

Sculptures and Architecture:

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A classical statue of Doryphoros Polykeitos (440 BC - plaster cast) which, among others, influenced the sculptural design of the athletic statues encircling the stadium
Portrait Picture of Fascist leader, Benito Mussolini (1930)

The sixty towering, grand, and dignified Carrara marble athletic statues ringing the stadium were gifted by the Italian provinces and embodied the ancient cardinal Roman values: virilitas, fortitudo, disciplina, and gravita (virility, fortitude, discipline, and dignity). [10][1] They were designed and produced by twenty-four talented sculptors, who were chosen from a contest, and included artists like Nicola D'Antino, Aldo Buttini, Silvio Canevari, Carlo de Veroli, Publio Morbiducci, Eugenio Baroni, Arnolfo Bellini, Fancesco Messina, and Romano Romanelli. [10] The sculptors adhered to classical forms and elements, when they used Greek and Roman statues as models, such as Doryphoros of Polykleitos and Discobolus of Myron, which stood out against the pure, simple, and plain white marble architecture of the stadium. [7][1] The statues, monuments, and architecture produced under the Fascist regime did not have their own unique characteristics, because they were a fusion of ancient Roman and modern elements. [11] According to the architect Enrico Del Debbio, the sports complex was designed as an "architectonic complex of severe monumentality ... the result is the emergence of a monumental group which can be traced back to the greatest monuments of ancient Rome,". [3] The impressive statues of the Stadio dei Marmi resemble the ancient Roman Foro Imperiale. [12] These statues, which incorporated classical elements, served to glorify Mussolini, in order to equate him to Augustus, the Roman emperor, and memorialized Fascism. [12] "The obvious references to Rome, claimed Fascist propagandists, made the Foro Mussolini the living embodiment of the 'Mediterranean spirit and the Latin world at its best,'". [13]

Aroldo Bellini's Atleta che scaglia una pietra (athlete throwing a stone); Stadio dei Marmi

Renato Ricci, chief of the Opera Nazionale Balilla (O.N.B), the Fascist youth organization, oversaw the design and sculpting process of the statues encircling the Stadio dei Marmi, to ensure stylistic standardization and visual consistency between the sculptures carved by the various artists. [1] The statues represented the praised Fascist sports and were intended to evoke heroism by displaying monumental and imposing athletes in static, powerful, and valiant poses with a focus on gestures and proportions, rather than in arbitrary motion or action. [1] Moreover, many of the statues are shown at rest, in vigorous stances. [1] In Aroldo Bellini's statue of an Atleta che scaglia una pietra (athlete throwing a stone), the athlete's pose is majestic and lacking tension or any physical exertion. [1]

The Stadio dei marmi exemplifies the ancient body politic metaphor; the important interrelationship between the ideal male body and the ideal nation. [14] Its tremendous and large-scale athletic sculptures represent the idealized, strong, masculine body, which was a fundamental part of the Fascist ideology and also strengthened the belief that through sports 'mens sana in corpore sano' (healthy mind in a healthy body) can be achieved. [14]

The Olympic Games and Post-use:

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Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana, located in the new neighborhood built by the Fascist regime, Esposizione Universale Roma (EUR)

Prior to World War II, Italy's Fascist regime invested in large-scale construction projects, that included the new neighborhood Esposizione Universale Roma (EUR), with its Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana and the Foro Mussolini, now known was the Foro Italico, which included the Stadio dei Marmi. [12] To this day, these monuments, buildings, stadiums, statues, and neighborhoods are incorporated into Italy's past, culture, and history, due to both the lack of funds in post-war Italy to rebuild major districts and buildings and the presence and persistence of Fascist ideology. [12] After the Fascist regime was defeated in 1943, the Foro Italico was not destroyed and demolished because it was used by the Allied military as a refuge center. [15] Following Mussolini's reign (1922 to 1943), the Stadio dei Marmi, as part of the larger complex, has been continuously utilized for various sporting events including the 1960 Olympic Games, the 1990 World Cup final, and is today the home stadium to two Serie A teams: A.S. Roma and S.S. Lazio. [16]

1960 Olympic Games, at the Stadio dei Marmi
sixty-foot tall marble obelisk with the inscription 'Mussolini Dux' at the entrance of the Foro Italico

The 1960 Olympic Games were a perfect opportunity to unveil Italy's new democratic identity. [17] Leading up to the Olympic Games, officials began debating the obvious Fascist insignia, mosaics, and elements surrounding the sporting complex and how the world might respond to them. [18] At the time, visitors from all around the world arrived at the Foro Italico, passing the sixty-foot tall marble obelisk with the inscription 'Mussolini Dux' and then witnessing an array of mosaics and marble slabs celebrating both the Fascist leader and the movement. [16] During the 1960, there was a strong political divide between the left and the right. [18] And as the left came to power and suggested removing overtly Fascist symbols within and surrounding the Olympic stadium, there was substantial Fascist opposition. [18] The Neo-Fascists, supported by the Movimento Sociale Italiano, demanded that: 'la storia non si cancella' (history must not be erased). [17] Two of the extremely inflammatory inscriptions were taken down, but many weren't out of fear that those who celebrated Fascism and its ideology would revolt and disrupt Italy's democratic and united appearance. [18] Social, economic, and political influence, as well as the Vatican's power allowed: "the Fascist past [to be] drowned under the weight of the classical and Christian heritage", [19] whereas the Vatican owned the land underneath the stadium, and the Pope, Pope Pius XXI, supported the use of the stadium for the Games, because it not only would attract visitors, but also bring in revenue for the Vatican. [20] During the 1960s, there was little focus, controversy, or criticism placed on the "Fascist heritage" or its "political origins" and the purpose of the stadium, but rather on the history of ancient Rome and its classical elements used in the design of the statues within the stadium and the architecture of the stadium itself. [20]

Prior to the 1990 Football Championships, the Foro Italico underwent a large-scale restoration. [21] Some people supported the restoration of these stadiums as an initiative to protect Italian historical heritage, while others considered it as an act of honor to the Fascist leader, Mussolini. [21] The restoration was managed by Walter Veltroni, the Minister of Culture, who stated: "To condemn [Fascism] we need to understand, historicize, and rationalize it, not remove it." [22]

Romanità and the Fascist Regime

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Stadio dei Marmi

Romanità is "a deep affection for Rome and things Roman, in an effort to identify with a primordial Rome that is impervious to contemporary political and social trends". [23] This fondness arose in Fascist society through its emphasis and importance placed on sports as a form of civic and military education, and it continues to thrive within the Italian soccer culture. [23] Apart from being a Fascist site, the Stadio dei Marmi, with its ancient Roman and Greek inspired statues, and modern, pure and simple architecture, is also a site of Romanità, where all Italian social classes learned values of unity, vigor, and virility. [2] Extremists argue that the grandeur of Stadio dei Marmi itself is an exemplar of "superiority of Roman cultural forms". [2] Through sports and the concept of Romanità, the Fascist regime not only associated itself with ancient Rome, but strengthened and unified itself. [24] To this day, the concept of Romanità continues to inhabit the Stadio Olimpico, at the Foro Italico, with the rival soccer teams A.S. Roma and S.S. Lazio. [23]

Criticism

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Professor Valerie Higgins, Program Director of Sustainable Cultural Heritage, remarked that the decision to keep almost all Fascist monuments, inscriptions, symbols, and architecture visible was not an act of negative heritage or tribute to past terror, but an act to fake and preserve a united appearance to the world. [19] Therefore she argues that the use of the Stadio dei Marmi, in the 1960 Olympic Games, was an example "of the way that Italy has never fully come to terms with its role in the Second World War, and the spectre of that lack of reckoning continues to haunt heritage planning". [19] Recently, there has been much debate surrounding what to do with monuments, inscriptions, buildings, and architecture that have Fascist origins, where the Left maintains that democratic Italy should not erase its history, the Moderates claim indifference, and the Right views these sights solely as architecture, rather than Fascist propaganda. [25]

References

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  • 1960 Summer Olympics official report. Volume 1. pp. 64–5.
  • 1960 Summer Olympics official report. Volume 2, Part 2. pp. 437–60.
  • Stadio dei Marmi profile. (in French)

41°56′03″N 12°27′27″E / 41.934290°N 12.457380°E / 41.934290; 12.457380

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Giorio, Maria Beatrice. “La Scultura Fascista Di Soggetto Sportivo Tra Bellezza e Propaganda Ideologica.” Italies, no. 23, 2019, pp. 68., doi:10.4000/italies.6979.
  2. ^ a b c d Dyal, Mark. "Football, Romanità, and The Search For Stasis." In Global Rome: Changing Faces of the Eternal City, edited by Marinaro Isabella Clough and Thomassen Bjørn, 175. Indiana University Press, 2014. Accessed March 4, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt16gzp33.15.
  3. ^ a b Baxa, Paul. 2010. Roads and Ruins: The Symbolic Landscape of Fascist Rome. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. BAXA, PAUL. "Demolitions: De-familiarizing the Roman Cityscape." In Roads and Ruins: The Symbolic Landscape of Fascist Rome, 73. University of Toronto Press, 2010. Accessed March 30, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3138/9781442697379.8.
  4. ^ Falasca-Zamponi, Simonetta. “Fascist Spectacle: The Aesthetics of Power in Mussolini's Italy.” Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997, p. 90., doi:10.1525/9780520926158.
  5. ^ Giorio, Maria Beatrice. “La Scultura Fascista Di Soggetto Sportivo Tra Bellezza e Propaganda Ideologica.” Italies, no. 23, 2019, pp. 65., doi:10.4000/italies.6979.
  6. ^ a b Giorio, Maria Beatrice. “La Scultura Fascista Di Soggetto Sportivo Tra Bellezza e Propaganda Ideologica.” Italies, no. 23, 2019, pp. 66., doi:10.4000/italies.6979.
  7. ^ a b c Giorio, Maria Beatrice. “La Scultura Fascista Di Soggetto Sportivo Tra Bellezza e Propaganda Ideologica.” Italies, no. 23, 2019, pp. 67., doi:10.4000/italies.6979.
  8. ^ a b c McLean, Eden K. "From Instruction to Education." In Mussolini's Children: Race and Elementary Education in Fascist Italy, 97. LINCOLN; LONDON: University of Nebraska Press, 2018. Accessed March 30, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv19x4pm.9.
  9. ^ McLean, Eden K. "From Instruction to Education." In Mussolini's Children: Race and Elementary Education in Fascist Italy, 98. LINCOLN; LONDON: University of Nebraska Press, 2018. Accessed March 30, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv19x4pm.9.
  10. ^ a b c Impiglia, Marco. “Arte Sportiva Fascista in Italia (1922-1943).” Academia.edu, www.academia.edu/34320668/ARTE_SPORTIVA_FASCISTA_IN_ITALIA_1922_1943.
  11. ^ Malone, Hannah. “Legacies of Fascism: Architecture, Heritage and Memory in Contemporary Italy.” Modern Italy, vol. 22, no. 4, 2017, pp. 461., doi:10.1017/mit.2017.51.
  12. ^ a b c d Higgins, Valerie. “Rome’s Uncomfortable Heritage: Dealing with History in the Aftermath of WWII.” Archaeologies9, no. 1 (2013): 30. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11759-013-9226-3.
  13. ^ Baxa, Paul. 2010. Roads and Ruins: The Symbolic Landscape of Fascist Rome. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. BAXA, PAUL. "Demolitions: De-familiarizing the Roman Cityscape." In Roads and Ruins: The Symbolic Landscape of Fascist Rome, 74. University of Toronto Press, 2010. Accessed March 30, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3138/9781442697379.8.
  14. ^ a b Griffiths, Jennifer S. "Re-envisioning Italy’s ‘New Man’ in Bella Non Piangere! (1955)." In Cultures of Representation: Disability in World Cinema Contexts, edited by FRASER BENJAMIN, 188. LONDON; NEW YORK: Columbia University Press, 2016. Accessed March 5, 2021. doi:10.7312/fras17748.17.
  15. ^ Malone, Hannah. “Legacies of Fascism: Architecture, Heritage and Memory in Contemporary Italy.” Modern Italy, vol. 22, no. 4, 2017, pp. 452., doi:10.1017/mit.2017.51.
  16. ^ a b Higgins, Valerie. “Rome’s Uncomfortable Heritage: Dealing with History in the Aftermath of WWII.” Archaeologies9, no. 1 (2013): 32. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11759-013-9226-3.
  17. ^ a b Malone, Hannah. “Legacies of Fascism: Architecture, Heritage and Memory in Contemporary Italy.” Modern Italy, vol. 22, no. 4, 2017, pp. 462., doi:10.1017/mit.2017.51.
  18. ^ a b c d Higgins, Valerie. “Rome’s Uncomfortable Heritage: Dealing with History in the Aftermath of WWII.” Archaeologies9, no. 1 (2013): 33. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11759-013-9226-3.
  19. ^ a b c Higgins, Valerie. “Rome’s Uncomfortable Heritage: Dealing with History in the Aftermath of WWII.” Archaeologies9, no. 1 (2013): 36. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11759-013-9226-3.
  20. ^ a b Higgins, Valerie. “Rome’s Uncomfortable Heritage: Dealing with History in the Aftermath of WWII.” Archaeologies9, no. 1 (2013): 35. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11759-013-9226-3.
  21. ^ a b Malone, Hannah. “Legacies of Fascism: Architecture, Heritage and Memory in Contemporary Italy.” Modern Italy, vol. 22, no. 4, 2017, pp. 464., doi:10.1017/mit.2017.51.
  22. ^ Malone, Hannah. “Legacies of Fascism: Architecture, Heritage and Memory in Contemporary Italy.” Modern Italy, vol. 22, no. 4, 2017, pp. 465., doi:10.1017/mit.2017.51.
  23. ^ a b c Dyal, Mark. "Football, Romanità, and The Search For Stasis." In Global Rome: Changing Faces of the Eternal City, edited by Marinaro Isabella Clough and Thomassen Bjørn, 172. Indiana University Press, 2014. Accessed March 4, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt16gzp33.15.
  24. ^ Dyal, Mark. "Football, Romanità, and The Search For Stasis." In Global Rome: Changing Faces of the Eternal City, edited by Marinaro Isabella Clough and Thomassen Bjørn, 178. Indiana University Press, 2014. Accessed March 4, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt16gzp33.15.
  25. ^ Malone, Hannah. “Legacies of Fascism: Architecture, Heritage and Memory in Contemporary Italy.” Modern Italy, vol. 22, no. 4, 2017, pp. 465., doi:10.1017/mit.2017.51.

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