the opening of three souvenir shops, perhaps in put it to new uses. This large building was the
an attempt to defuse the situation and to impose only one left derelict in the town centre, despite
some legal control. But the move backfired: these its undoubted architectural interest and the wealth
stores soon became not just points of sale of the of historical evidence it contained. It was also a
worst Fascist garbage, but they also turned into building of great symbolic value due to the function
organizational centres for the revival of pilgrimages it performed in the final years of the regime, that
and for the attempt to build up a small tourist is to say, of a welcome centre for pilgrims, and
economy providing board and lodging for the as a social centre where party propaganda was
nostalgici and allowing them to feel that they were created and disseminated. The first step was to
the “majority” - at least on the three recurring approve a programme of assessment and promotion
dates of Mussolini’s birth, his death, and the seizure which allowed the transfer of properties by the
of power on 28 October. All these events have left State and laid out a precise strategy for its new
Predappio with the troubling legacy of a horrific functions, focused on the creation of a research and
commercialization: busts of the leader, uniforms documentation centre on the history of Fascism,
with unrepeatable writings, pro-Fascist publications with a permanent historical exhibition – that
of all kinds, knives and clubs, and mementos of is, a modern museum created with advanced
Hitler and the Nazis. The creation of a kind of multimedia technologies that would act as a kind
ideological, if not directly political, “tourism”, is of “counterweight” with respect to the original
concentrated on 28 October, the anniversary of both functions of the building. The programme involved a
the march on Rome in 1922 and the liberation of re-focusing of the building’s symbolic value (rather
Romagna in 1944. For some years this coincidence than its elimination), and reaffirmed the importance
has transformed into a kind of conflict between of cultural projects in the dissemination of historical
Fascists and anti-Fascists. The opposition has knowledge. The methodology implemented explicitly
not led to violent clashes and it expresses itself drew its inspiration from other situations in Italy
essentially in the field of singing and eating and and abroad, such as the restoration of the Victory
drinking wine; nevertheless, more than a tourist Monument in Bolzano and the Obersalzberg
phenomenon, it resembles a military invasion by exhibition in the Bavarian Alps – where Nazi
small or large numbers of troops while the local sympathizers once visited Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest,
population looks on in almost total indifference. but where the new museum on Nazism promotes
cultural tourism and is currently visited by almost
In the following years, a new campaign led
200,000 people a year. Meanwhile, in Predappio,
by democrats was launched to rescue the image of the presence of Fascist nostalgia persists, linked to
the town, which had become a kind of “free port” the extreme right. Its sympathizers are disoriented
of neo-Fascism. In the late 1990s, the municipal by the legal wrangling between the various currents
authorities acquired the house where Mussolini of neo-Fascism (some of which explicitly despise
was born with the fundamental aim of preventing the “carnival” of Predappio, where black uniforms
its use as a shrine and of transforming it into a and shirts are still displayed today) or disappointed
place of historical reflection, with the organization by the conflicts within the Mussolini family which
of exhibitions focused on understanding the past. led to the closure of the tomb for almost two years,
The exhibition dedicated to the Young Mussolini except for the most significant days.
was particularly important, curated by a qualified
group of historians and enriched with a considerable
In terms of its content, the project of the
amount of new material. But the most important conversion of the Casa del Fascio is unique
measure over the last decade was the decision to throughout Italy, since no other institution in the
restore the Casa del Fascio e dell’Ospitalitá and country has set out to present a general history of
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