Souvenir shop in Predappio main street | EUROM
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built in Italy, mainly in the 1930s, to represent the regime’s aspirations for modernity,
from Littoria (now Latina) to Tresigallo, from the beautiful Sabaudia to the villages of
Tuscany. But Predappio, unlike almost all the “new cities”, was not built in a short time,
but over a process that lasted almost twenty years; here there congregated a large number
of architects, some of them of considerable renown, and an intersection of styles and
architectural visions is still present today. Here Florestano Di Fausto, Cesare Valle, Cesare
Bazzani, Arnaldo Fuzzi and others left traces of undoubted quality.
The town was destined to be a fundamental propaganda vehicle for the regime,
designed to represent a kind of “Bethlehem of Italy”, as Antonio Beltramelli defined it,
and attracted waves of “pilgrims” during the twenty years of Fascism. Materially, the
main destinations for pilgrimages were the birthplace of the Duce, the Palazzo Varano
(which still houses the town hall today) the cemetery of San Cassiano with the family
crypt and the vast Casa del Fascio. Military groups, professional associations and party
organizations from all over Italy crowded into the streets of the city on several occasions,
to mark anniversaries and to revere the leader. In essence, it was the construction of a
“contemporary” memory which, more than anything else, demonstrates the particular
nature of the town and which is vital to an understanding of both the postwar years and the
events of more recent times. Many buildings, and the urban structure itself, were conceived
as a “theatrical backdrop” for the masses of visitors. The Casa del Fascio added to its classic
name the suffix of “e dell’Ospitalitá... (and hospitality)”, the only building to bear such a
name in the whole of Italy. It was far too large for the needs of the local population, and
added functions explicitly intended for short pilgrimages, including a restaurant-bar and a
day hotel. Few dictators’ birthplaces have attracted as many celebrations as did Predappio
during Mussolini’s lifetime. Unlike many birthplaces, Predappio was also well known to
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