Foro Italico is a sports complex in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, on the slopes of

Monte Mario Monte Mario (English: Mount Mario or Mount Marius) is the hill that rises in the north-west area of Rome (Italy), on the right bank of the Tiber, crossed by the Via Trionfale. It occupies part of Balduina, of the territory of Municipio I, Munici ...

. It was built between 1928 and 1938 as the Foro Mussolini (literally Mussolini's Forum) under the design of Enrico Del Debbio and, later, Luigi Moretti. Inspired by the

Roman forum A forum (Latin: ''forum'', "public place outdoors", : ''fora''; English : either ''fora'' or ''forums'') was a public square in a municipium, or any civitas, of Ancient Rome reserved primarily for the vending of goods; i.e., a marketplace, alon ...

s of the imperial age, its design is lauded as a preeminent example of Italian

fascist architecture Fascist architecture encompasses various stylistic trends in architecture developed by architects of fascist states, primarily in the early 20th century. Fascist architectural styles gained popularity in the late 1920s with the ri ...

instituted by Mussolini. The purpose of the prestigious project was to get the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...

of 1940 to be organised by fascist Italy and held in Rome.

History

The first buildings of the architectural complex were inaugurated on November 4, 1932: they were Palazzo H, the seat of the Fascist School of Physical Education; the so-called "Monolith"; the Stadio dei Marmi; the Stadio dei Cipressi (then Stadio dei Centomila and now Stadio Olimpico). In 1936 and, subsequently, until 1941, Luigi Moretti - former author of the Accademia di scherma al Foro Italico in the Foro Mussolini - worked out designs that, while incorporating Del Debbio's urban plan, involved an expansion of the Foro towards Tor di Quinto; these designs were never put into practice.

Description

The main entrance of the Foro is south-east, in line with the ponte Duca d'Aosta: here - on a wide avenue entirely covered with a mosaic made of black and white tesserae - rises a huge

obelisk An obelisk (; , diminutive of (') ' spit, nail, pointed pillar') is a tall, slender, tapered monument with four sides and a pyramidal or pyramidion top. Originally constructed by Ancient Egyptians and called ''tekhenu'', the Greeks used th ...

17,5 meters high (excluding the base), carved in Carrara marble, known as ''Stele Mussolini''. The facility is decorated with statues, donated by the different Italian

Provinces A province is an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outside Italy. The term ''provi ...

and therefore of different authors, which represent various sport activities: for example, the statue dedicated to javelin throw was donated by the Province of Perugia, while the one representing the so-called "ball with the bracelet" (an ancient

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

game) is due to the

Province of Forlì-Cesena The Province of Forlì-Cesena () is a province in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. Its capitals are the cities of Forlì and Cesena. The province has a population of 394,273 as of 2016 over an area of . It contains 30 '' comuni'' (: ''comu ...

. Near the Stadio Olimpico rises the Palazzo della Farnesina, the seat of the

Ministry of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and relations, diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral r ...

since 1959, designed by the architects who won the architectural design competition: Enrico Del Debbio, Arnaldo Foschini, Vittorio Ballio Morpurgo. The Foro is home to numerous sports venues, such as the largest sports facility in Rome, the Stadio Olimpico, the ornate Stadio dei Marmi and the adjoining building which is the seat of the Italian National Olympic Committee (originally built for the purposes of the Fascist Male Academy of Physical Education). Foro Italico also comprises an aquatics center built for the 1960 summer Olympics, the Stadio del Nuoto ("Swimming Stadium") and a tennis center. The tennis center, which annually hosts the Italian Open, an ATP Masters 1000 and WTA 1000 event, is an extensive area with a total of 18 clay surface tennis courts, nine of which are used for the Italian Open tournament and the rest for training purposes. There are currently three stadium courts: the main one, ''Stadio Centrale'', was rebuilt for the 2010 tournament and has a capacity of 10,400 spectators; the other grounds are the ''Stadio Nicola Pietrangeli'' (formerly ''Stadio Pallacorda''), 3,500 seats, and the ''Grand Stand Arena''. Foro Italico has hosted important events, most notably the

1960 Summer Olympics The 1960 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XVII Olympiad () and commonly known as Rome 1960 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 25 August to 11 September 1960 in Rome, Italy. Rome had previously been awar ...

. Since 2012, the Stadio Olimpico hosts the home games of the Italy national rugby union team at the Guinness Six Nations. Other live events like music concerts are also held at the various venues in the complex.

Sports venues

Foro Italico - Campo Pietrangeli - panoramio

* Stadio Olimpico * Stadio dei Marmi * Stadio Centrale del Tennis * Stadio Olimpico del Nuoto

International sporting events

* 1960, Summer Olympics * 1968,

UEFA European Football Championship The UEFA European Football Championship, less formally the European Championship and informally the Euro or Euros, is the primary association football tournament organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). The competition ...

* 1974,

European Athletics Championships The European Athletics Championships is a biennial (from 2010) athletics event organised by the European Athletic Association and is recognised as the elite continental outdoor athletics championships for Europe. Editions First held, for me ...

* 1980,

* 1983, LEN European Aquatics Championships * 1987, World Championships in Athletics * 1990,

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internatio ...

* 1994, World Aquatics Championships * 2009, World Aquatics Championships * 2011, Beach Volleyball World Championships * 2021, Street Skateboarding World Championships * 2021,

* 2022, LEN European Aquatics Championships * 2024,

Walk of fame

On May 7, 2015 a walk called "The legends of Italian Sport - Walk of fame" has been inaugurated on Viale delle Olimpiadi. On this walk, 100 plaques were set bearing the names of former athletes who wrote the history of national sport chosen by the CONI Athletes Commission. Many personalities of Italian sport attended at the ceremony, chaired by the President of CONI, Giovanni Malagò. The President announced that in the following years the plates of other former Italian athletes of international importance would be added to the walk.

References

Bibliography

* Marcello Piacentini,
Il Foro Mussolini in Roma. Arch. Enrico Del Debbio
'', in "Architettura", February 1933, file II, pp. 65–75 * Mario Paniconi,
Criteri informatori e dati sul Foro Mussolini
'', in "Architettura", February 1933, file II, pp. 76–89 *
Organizzazioni e caratteristiche tecniche dell'opera
'', in "Architettura", February 1933, file II, pp. 90–105 *

External links

*{{Commons category-inline, Foro Italico (Rome) Italian fascist architecture Sports venues in Rome Tennis venues in Italy Water polo venues Rome Q. XV Della Vittoria Olympic Parks Outdoor arenas