The image of the modern city: invention, construction and use of the new Rome Capital (1870-1911)

Abstract

In 1911 the International Exposition became the great commemorative event of the 50th anniversary of the Unification of Italy, taking advantage of this circumstance to distri-bute the venues among the three capitals of the new State: Turin, Florence and Rome. It was in this last city where the demonstrations around the Fine Arts and Ethnography were concentrated, using culture as a brand image of the new capital. This culminated the process of building the image of the new Capital Rome that had begun in 1870 after the entry into the city of Garibaldi's troops, beginning an urban transformation of notable impact that then reached a culminating moment with the development of the new Piano Regolatore Generale de Sant Just. The analysis of the public image that was sought to be transmitted through the events organized around the Exhibition brings us even closer to the process of consolidation of Rome as the new capital of the State, directly related to the changes in its urban fabric and the search in the architectural of a national and modern style. The photography, the posters, the press, the pavilions, the ephemeral constructions, the exhibitions, the new neighborhoods, the bridges, the gardens and the public monuments, among other multiple factors, allow us to reconstruct the “idea of ​​the city” with which they tried to show the world the modern image of the new Rome. In this context, the city of Rome, the capital of the fledgling nation, had to be endowed with an image that represented the values ​​with which the new Italy sought to commit itself. Thus arose the need to create a city-brand capable of projecting to the rest of the world the image of a monarchical, modern and bourgeois capital, without renouncing the tradition of being the city symbol of the power of the Papacy and the glory of the Roman empire. And to this they will be applied, from politics to the world of culture, through a complete and perfectly planned program of actions, in which artists, the proliferation of public monuments, and the creation and reorganization will play a determining role. tion of numerous and important institutions and cultural venues, both in the area of ​​the historic city and in the new growth areas of the modern metropolis. To this will be added the necessary urban planning plans, the restoration of monuments, and the new theories that are linked to it, archaeological actions, the creation of new neighborhoods and expansion areas for homes and industries.