As many readers will know, Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini carved an imperial procession route through the heart of the ancient Roman city center, laying a wide road, now called the Via dei Fori Imperiali, that stretches from the Colosseum to Piazza Venezia.
In creating the road that he called Via dell’Impero or Street of the Empire (the name was changed in 1945), Mussolini and his archaeologist, Corrado Ricci, destroyed a great number of renaissance and medieval buildings and quickly plowed through any number of ancient archaeological deposits as well as important ancient buildings and their surroundings.
Starting tomorrow, 23 July, the Capitoline Museums will be hosting an exhibition documenting the vast process of demolition and excavation by which the road was created and Mussolini’s excavation of parts of the Forum of Augustus, the Forum of Caesar, the Forum of Nerva, and the Forum and Markets of Trajan.
140 works — among them photos, paintings, frescoes, and ancient sculptures — will be on exhibit.
The exhibition is titled “L’invenzione dei Fori Imperali. Demolizioni e scavi: 1924-1940,” and it will remain on view until 23 November.
