ABSTRACT
Reactions against or in favor of the architecture and artistic ornament of public buildings designed during the Fascist regime are still provoking controversy in Italian society even though we have lived with this uncomfortable legacy continuously since 1945: our heritage is embodied in buildings of all types, monuments, public spaces, and symbolic ornament and by the new and adapted urban plans in many major Italian towns.
Starting from these considerations, this chapter focuses on the visit of Mussolini to Genoa in 1938, when the Duce inaugurated several new buildings that fared differently during the postwar period: some have maintained their original function; some found a similar purpose but were poorly preserved; and some are still looking for a new destiny. This chapter aims to compare their original significance and impacts, with the aesthetic and ideological reactions they provoked in the city’s architectural domain after the fall of fascism.
