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| 41°51′41″N87°36′49″W / 41.86150°N 87.61356°W | |
| Location | Chicago, Illinois, United States |
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The Balbo Monument consists of a column that is approximately 2,000 years old dating from between 117 and 38 BC and a contemporary stone base. It was taken from an ancient port town outside of Rome by Benito Mussolini and given to the city of Chicago in 1933 to honor the trans-Atlantic flight led by Italo Balbo to the Century of Progress Worlds Fair. [1]
The Balbo Monument includes a column that was taken from a site about 200 meters outside of Porta Marina in Ostia. The building that the column originated from is called the Prospetto a Mare which translates to the Prospectus to Sea. [2] Due to extensive renovation that was done during the second century AD, many of the buildings throughout the settlement of Ostia were repurposed or built over. [3] Although this building endured through years of change and innovation, there are very few records still in existence that pertain to the building's original purpose.
The Romans constructed the column from breccia, [1] a type of stone created from the combination of angular gravel and the fragments of boulders. [4] The pillar is a greenish color, thirteen feet tall and three feet in diameter. [5] Two Italian architects named Capraro and Komar created the base of the monument [1] out of travertine, [2] a type of light colored limestone frequently used in Roman architecture. [6] They inscribed a message in Italian. In English the message reads:
This column
twenty centuries old
erected on the beach of Ostia
port of Imperial Rome
to safeguard the fortunes and victories
of the Roman triremes
Fascist Italy, by command of Benito Mussolini,
presents to Chicago
exaltation, symbol, memorial
of the Atlantic Squadron led by Balbo
that with Roman daring flew across the ocean
in the 11th year
of the Fascist era. [2]
The monument represents a portion of history but it is also valued as a piece of art and it stands as a symbol that has very different meanings for different groups of people. [2] After Benito Mussolini had the pillar removed from its original place in Ostia, he had it converted into a monument that he gave to the City of Chicago. It was transported by boat to America and arrived in Chicago in 1934 during the Century of Progress World's fair and placed in front of the Italian Pavilion. While the fair was eventually disassembled, the column was left standing in its original place just a short distance from the shores of Lake Michigan in an often overlooked area of Burnham Park. [2] This token was a tribute to the first transatlantic crossing made by the Italian air force and fascist general, Italo Balbo. [2]
At the time of this celebration, relations between Fascist Italy and the United States were friendly. [7] [8] In fact, they had been for most of the duration of the regime. Mussolini, Grandi, Balbo and others were recurringly portrayed in a positive light on American media, with Mussolini featured on the cover of Newsweek magazine as late as May 1940. Balbo in particular was hugely popular, especially in Chicago [9] and New York. [10]
After the end of Second World War, the anti-fascist Italian ambassador to the United States Alberto Tarchiani requested that the tributes to Balbo be removed. Mayor Edward J. Kelly, surprised, reportedly asked: "Why? Didn't Balbo cross the Atlantic?" [11]
Balbo's pillar endured in spite of intermittent objections. [12] In 2017 there was discussion about removing the monument, [13] [14] but as of December 2023 it remains in place.
Mixed emotions about the monument survive to this day: some observers regard its link to Fascism as unacceptable, while older Chicago residents hold on to fond memories of an age of progress. [1]
The Tiber is the third-longest river in Italy and the longest in Central Italy, rising in the Apennine Mountains in Emilia-Romagna and flowing 406 km (252 mi) through Tuscany, Umbria, and Lazio, where it is joined by the River Aniene, to the Tyrrhenian Sea, between Ostia and Fiumicino. It drains a basin estimated at 17,375 km2 (6,709 sq mi). The river has achieved lasting fame as the main watercourse of the city of Rome, which was founded on its eastern banks.
Italo Balbo was an Italian fascist politician and Blackshirts' leader who served as Italy's Marshal of the Air Force, Governor-General of Italian Libya and Commander-in-Chief of Italian North Africa. Due to his young age, he was sometimes seen as a possible successor of dictator Benito Mussolini.
The "Manifesto of Race", otherwise referred to as the Charter of Race or the Racial Manifesto, was a manifesto which was promulgated by the Council of Ministers on the 14th of July 1938, its promulgation was followed by the enactment, in October 1938, of the Racial Laws in Fascist Italy (1922–1943) and the Italian colonial empire (1923–1947).
Gioventù Fascista was a magazine designed for youth in Italy under Benito Mussolini's Fascist state. Its features included stories and cartoons praising the regime and inculcating the tenets of Fascism.
Italo Gismondi was an Italian archaeologist. He is most famed for Il Plastico, a massive scale model of imperial Rome under Constantine the Great.
Italian fascism, also known as classical fascism or simply fascism, is the original fascist ideology as developed in Italy by Giovanni Gentile and Benito Mussolini. The ideology is associated with a series of two political parties led by Benito Mussolini: the National Fascist Party (PNF), which ruled the Kingdom of Italy from 1922 until 1943, and the Republican Fascist Party (PFR) that ruled the Italian Social Republic from 1943 to 1945. Italian fascism is also associated with the post-war Italian Social Movement (MSI) and subsequent Italian neo-fascist movements.
Francesco de Pinedo was a famous Italian aviator. A Regia Marina officer who transferred to the Regia Aeronautica, he was an advocate of the seaplane and is best known for his long-range flying boat flights in the 1920s that demonstrated the feasibility of global air travel.
The Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana, also known as the Palazzo della Civiltà del Lavoro, or in everyday speech as the Colosseo Quadrato, is a building in the EUR district in Rome. It was designed in 1938 by three Italian architects: Giovanni Guerrini, Ernesto La Padula, and Mario Romano. The building is an example of Italian Rationalism and fascist architecture with neoclassical design, representing romanità, a philosophy which encompasses the past, present, and future all in one. The enormity of the structure is meant to reflect the fascist regime's new course in Italian history. The design of the building draws inspiration from the Colosseum with rows of arches. According to legend, the structure's six vertical and nine horizontal arches are correlated to the number of letters in the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini's name.
Burnham Park is a public park located in Chicago, Illinois. Situated along 6 miles (9.7 km) of Lake Michigan shoreline, the park connects Grant Park at 14th Street to Jackson Park at 56th Street. The 598 acres (242 ha) of parkland is owned and managed by Chicago Park District. It was named for urban planner and architect Daniel Burnham in 1927. Burnham was one of the designers of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition.
Quadrumvirs may refer to:
Ernesto BurzagliCB GCMM GOA was a prominent figure in the Kingdom of Italy during the early 20th century. During a lifetime career in the Italian Royal Navy, he rose to the rank of Admiral and Chief of Staff. In 1933, King Victor Emmanuel III appointed Burzagli as a Senator in Rome.
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian dictator and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party (PNF). He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his deposition in 1943, as well as "Duce" of Italian fascism from the establishment of the Italian Fasces of Combat in 1919 until his summary execution in 1945 by Italian partisans. As dictator of Italy and principal founder of fascism, Mussolini inspired and supported the international spread of fascist movements during the inter-war period.
The Italian racial laws, otherwise referred to as the Racial Laws, were a series of laws which were promulgated by the Mussolini government in Fascist Italy (1922–1943) from 1938 to 1943 in order to enforce racial discrimination and segregation in the Kingdom of Italy. The main victims of the Racial Laws were Italian Jews and the native African inhabitants of the Italian colonial empire (1923–1947). In the aftermath of Mussolini's fall from power, the Badoglio government suppressed the laws. They remained enforced and were made more severe in the territories ruled by the Italian Social Republic (1943–1945) until the end of the Second World War.
The Marble Arch, also Arch of the Philaeni, formerly known in Libya as El Gaus, was a monument in Libya built during the days of Italian colonization. The arch marked the border between Tripolitania and Cyrenaica, and was located on the Via Balbia near Ra's Lanuf.
Events from the year 1922 in Italy.
Initially, Fascist Italy did not enact comprehensive racist policies like those policies which were enacted by its World War II Axis partner Nazi Germany. Italy's National Fascist Party leader, Benito Mussolini, expressed different views on the subject of race over the course of his career. In an interview conducted in 1932 at the Palazzo di Venezia in Rome, he said "Race? It is a feeling, not a reality: ninety-five percent, at least, is a feeling. Nothing will ever make me believe that biologically pure races can be shown to exist today". By 1938, however, he began to actively support racist policies in the Italian Fascist regime, as evidenced by his endorsement of the "Manifesto of Race", the seventh point of which stated that "it is time that Italians proclaim themselves to be openly racist", although Mussolini said that the Manifesto was endorsed "entirely for political reasons", in deference to Nazi German wishes. The "Manifesto of Race", which was published on 14 July 1938, paved the way for the enactment of the Racial Laws. Leading members of the National Fascist Party (PNF), such as Dino Grandi and Italo Balbo, reportedly opposed the Racial Laws. Balbo, in particular, regarded antisemitism as having nothing to do with fascism and he staunchly opposed the antisemitic laws. After 1938, discrimination and persecution intensified and became an increasingly important hallmark of Italian Fascist ideology and policies. Nevertheless, Mussolini and the Italian military did not consistently apply the laws adopted in the Manifesto of Race. In 1943, Mussolini expressed regret for the endorsement, saying that it could've been avoided. After the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, the Italian Fascist government implemented strict racial segregation between white people and black people in Ethiopia.
Antonio Lippi was an Italian aviator. He participated in the transatlantic flight organized by Italo Balbo and was awarded the Gold Medal of Aeronautic Valor of the Regia Aeronautica.
The Kingdom of Italy was governed by the National Fascist Party from 1922 to 1943 with Benito Mussolini as prime minister and dictator. The Italian Fascists imposed totalitarian rule and crushed political and intellectual opposition, while promoting economic modernization, traditional social values and a rapprochement with the Roman Catholic Church.
The Decennial Air Cruise was a mass transatlantic flight from Orbetello, Italy, to the Century of Progress International Exposition, Chicago, Illinois. The expedition, organized by the Italian Regia Aeronautica, began on July 1, 1933, and ended on August 12 of the same year. It consisted of 25 Savoia-Marchetti S.55X seaplanes crossing the Atlantic Ocean in formation, forming the greatest mass flight in aviation history. The Italian Squadrons, led by General Italo Balbo, were welcomed enthusiastically in the Netherlands, the UK, Iceland, Canada and particularly in the United States of America, where they became known as the Italian Air Armada. A publicity success for Fascist Italy, Balbo further viewed the expedition as a pioneering step towards commercial flights across the Atlantic.
Egisto Perino was an Italian Air Force general during World War II.
