From a shrine to a dictator to a Nazi holiday camp, here are some of the most fascinating examples of fascist architecture in Europe
Fascist architecture in Europe is not one of the most glorious periods of the continent’s artistic history. Apart from it being a reminder of some of the worst atrocities ever committed by humanity, it’s also a reflection of the vast (but fragile) egos of the dictators who commissioned these buildings. But it’s a fascinating insight into 20th-century Europe, and all of these places are well worth visiting.
The first wave of fascism in Europe was between the accession of Benito Mussolini in Italy in 1922 to the death of Hitler and capitulation of Germany in 1945. However, the second wave had already begun with the rise of Falangist General Franco in Spain and the dictatorship of Antonio Salazar in Portugal.
The latter dictators – Salazar in particular – differed from Mussolini and Hitler in some aspects – particularly as they didn’t rise to power on the back of grass roots movements. But the end results were similar – authoritarian dictatorship, with a penchant for grim monumental architecture reflecting their regimes’ values in stone and concrete.
Here are eight very different examples of fascist architecture around Europe. I describe each location in detail, and also advise how to get to them, what to see nearby and possible places to stay in the vicinity. I hope you find it interesting.
Fascist Architecture In Europe – Italy
Italian fascist architecture has its roots in Ancient Rome, which Mussolini sought to emulate, and in the Neoclassical architecture of the 18th century, which revived interest in Antiquity across the continent.
Buildings from the Mussolini period in Italy is sometimes referred to as ‘Rationalist’ architecture. The Gruppo 7 architects were prime movers in the 1920s, and favoured functional buildings usually devoid of ornamentation of any kind.
Palazzo della Civilta Italiana, EUR, Rome
Mussolini commissioned the construction of the EUR (Esposizione Universale di Roma) district in the suburbs of Rome for the intended Universal Exhibition which the Italian capital was due to host. This would also mark the 20th anniversary of the so-called ‘March on Rome’, and the accession of power by the Fascists in 1922.
The Exhibition did not happen because of World War Two, but the majority of the buildings in the district were eventually completed to their original designs after the end of the War. The most recognizable of these is the Palazzo della Civilta Italiana – the Palace of Italian Civilization. It’s better known by its nickname the ‘Square Colosseum – il Colosseo Quadrato in Italian.
The building – designed by Giovanni Guerrini, Ernesto La Padula and Mario Romano – was intended to be a Museum of Italian Civilization. However, it was never used for this purpose. It was completed in 1943, but left empty. After the fall of Mussolini and the Fascists, the building and district were tarnished by association with the former regime, an unwanted white elephant.
Authorities eventually decided to make use of the area by turning it into a residential and new business district, attempting to rebrand the buildings and project in the process. The Square Colosseum has also featured in numerous films, including Fellini’s Boccaccio ’70 and Peter Greenaway’s The Belly of an Architect.
Nowadays the building serves as the headquarters of the Italian fashion brand Fendi.
Getting there: Metro line B (direction Laurentina) to EUR Magliana, then a 5-minute walk.
Where To Stay – Antico Albergo del Sole al Pantheon – stunning location opposite the Pantheon, former guests include Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir
See Also: 50 Famous Landmarks In Italy
Casa del Fascio, Predappio, Emilia-Romagna
During the 1920s and 1930s, many towns and cities across Italy had a Casa di Fascio e dell’Ospitalita. They were a combination of local Fascist party headquarters and community centre, with meeting places and even shops. The former Casa di Fascio in Predappio is important because it was built in the hometown of Il Duce, Benito Mussolini, Italy’s Fascist leader.
Predappio’s Casa del Fascio is unusual in that it’s a very large building for a rather small town, and it’s only the size it is because it had to be seen to reflect what would have been seen as the prestige of Mussolini.
The building has mostly been disused since the end of the Second World War. It has been in a seriously dilapidated state, but enough restoration works have been carried out to keep it standing for now.
The Casa del Fascio was bought by Predappio town council in 2015, and they stated their intention to turn the building into a museum or study centre focusing on Fascism in Italy.
Many locals have objected, and are long fed up with visitors sympathetic to Mussolini making pilgrimages to Predappio to visit his birthplace and tomb. They want Predappio distanced from association with Mussolini and the Italian fascists, and are concerned that a new museum might end up having the opposite effect.
Getting there: Train from Bologna Centrale to Forli, then a bus to Predappio.
See Also: 11 Best Day Trips From Bologna
Santa Maria Novella Train Station, Florence
Santa Maria Novella station (Firenze SMN on train timetables) does rather stand out in Florence, the city of the Renaissance. Here among the works of Giotto, Brunelleschi and Michelangelo is one of the finest modernist buildings in Italy, the façade of which was built between 1932 and1934 to a design by the Gruppo Toscana collective of architects.
The rest of the station complex was designed by government architect Angiolo Mazzoni, and for a relatively low building, the skylit concourse area feels remarkably spacious.
The station takes its name from the late Gothic church of Santa Maria Novella, one of the best churches in Florence to visit. The east end of the church is barely a minute’s walk from the station exit. Walk around to the far end of the church to see its magnificent marble façade.
Where To Stay: Novella House – 17th-century house near Santa Maria Novella church, some rooms with frescoed ceilings
Fascist Architecture in Europe – Germany
Nazi architecture was all about immense, almost intimidating scale, and bombast. Hitler did not like Berlin (the feeling was largely mutual), and he had a long-term plan of demolishing much of the centre, replacing it with his gigantic capital Germania.
Very little of this came to fruition, the project interrupted by his invasions elsewhere in Europe and the outbreak of World War Two. The Strasse des 17 Juni, which runs through the Tiergarten to the Brandenburg Gate, is one of the few parts completed, a wide boulevard that would have joined the main north-south boulevard through the city.
Olympiastadion, Berlin
Fascist-era architects used gargantuan scale to inspire awe in those who saw their creations, and of the buildings in this article, this is the only one that made a remotely similar impression on me.
One of the most famous Berlin landmarks, it was built on the site of an earlier stadium to host the 1936 Berlin Olympics and designed by architect Werner March and Hitler’s favourite, Albert Speer. The original capacity was over 100,000.
Berlin’s Olympiastadion underwent an extensive remodelling before playing host to the 2006 FIFA World Cup Final. The main differences from the pre-2000 stadium are that the football pitch was laid over 2 metres lower to create a more intimate atmosphere, and the roof was extended to cover most of the crowd.
I happened to attend the last Bundesliga (German first division) match at the stadium in its original form in May 2000, when home team Hertha Berlin lost a dreary match to Borussia Dortmund. The game was forgettable, but my first impression of the vast bowl of the arena will always stick in my memory.
My main reason for visiting the stadium – along with the historical significance of the occasion – was to see where the great Jesse Owens won four Olympic golds during those notorious Games. The street outside the Stadium, Jesse Owens Allee, is named after him.
Getting there: You can reach the Olympiastadion on the U-Bahn (U2 service) or the S-Bahn (S3 and S9).
Tours – You can buy tickets here which enable you to walk around the Olympiastadion arena for up to a full day.
Where To Stay – Hotel Nikolai Residence – beautiful location in the Nikolaiviertel, the nearest thing there is to an ‘old Berlin’, 5 minutes’ walk from Alexanderplatz
Nuremberg Nazi Party Rally Grounds
The Nazi Party Rally grounds are one of the places most closely associated with Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany generally. The Imperial City of Nuremberg was chosen as the site for vast, meticulously choreographed rallies exalting the virtues of Führer Adolf Hitler, the masses straight-arm-saluting and sieg-heiling one of the most murderous leaders and regimes the world has ever seen.
The grounds are to the southeast of the city, close to the current FC Nürnberg football stadium. Many of the attended would have camped in the grounds, in which enormous wide boulevards are still preserved, giving you an idea of the gargantuan scale the Nazis wanted to project.
The Nazi parades passed along the front of the Zeppelin Tribune (pictured below), the grandstand from which Hitler and his henchmen would observe the marches. The large Nazi eagle and swastika that once stood on the top of the structure were symbolically blown up when the Allies conquered Nuremberg.
However, the largest of the Nuremberg Nazi Sites is the massive, unfinished Kongresshalle. It was intended to be an auditorium with a capacity of 50,000 people, who would have come to listen to Hitler’s bilious racist rants. The outer shell of the building – said to be inspired by the Colosseum in Rome but a whole lot bigger – remains intact, but there’s very little to see inside.
Next to the Kongresshalle and Rally Grounds, the Documentation Centre’s exhibition has recently reopened, and it does an excellent job of providing context for what happened in Nuremberg during those dark years.
Getting there: S-Bahn S3 to Dutzendteich (from Hauptbahnhof), tram 6 from Hallertor or Plärrer to Doku-Zentrum, or tram 8 to Doku-Zentrum from Hauptbahnhof.
Tours: This walking tour covers the entire Nazi Party Rally Grounds, taking two hours.
Where To Stay: Hotel Elch – family hotel in restored medieval house in the heart of Nuremberg Old Town
Prora Holiday Camp, Rügen Island
Fun in the sun, Nazi style
The Nazis weren’t the types to venture off the beaten track, seeking solitude on their travels. They strongly advocated a more communal holiday experience where you’d go to the seaside surrounded by thousands of your racially pure fellow citizens. There you could mix, meet new people, reproduce and create future footsoldiers for the twelve-year Reich. So they built Prora, the ultimate totalitarian holiday camp.
Prora is a beautiful location, with miles of Baltic beach on the sheltered east coast of Rügen Island. The Nazis promoted holidays and leisure through their Kraft durch Freude (Strength through Joy) organisation, with the holiday experience in turn promoting the Nazi-approved way of life. So through Kraft durch Freude they built this enormous Baltic holiday resort.
The ‘Colossus of Prora’ was completed, but never used for its original purpose. It was meant to accommodate 20,000 holidaymakers, and the complex of apartments is over 4 kilometres – 2.5 miles – long.
During the GDR (Communist) era the site was used for military purposes, and since reunification in 1990 parts of the complex have been renovated. There are now restaurants and a disco, and it’s only a short walk to a fantastic beach. There is also a museum documenting the history of what would have been the holiday camp from hell.
Getting there: Direct trains from Stralsund Hbf run to Binz, the next resort down to the coast after. They call at both Prora and Prora Ost before the terminus at Binz.
Where To Stay: Dormero Strandhotel Rügen occupies a section of one of the Nazi-built apartment blocks, which has been
Fascist Architecture in Europe – Portugal
Some historians would argue that Antonio de Oliveira Salazar wasn’t a fascist dictator. He suppressed the small Portuguese fascist movement, as he did any hint of opposition to him. Very few historians would offer any kind of argument against Salazar being a ruthless authoritarian dictator, whose rule began before the rise of Hitler, and continued until his death in 1970.
Salazar called his government the Estado Novo, or New State. While there were differences with his dictator-next-door Francisco Franco, he pursued a similar architectural direction. Scale was an important consideration, as was glorification of Portugal’s past achievements. This reached its apotheosis in one of the most famous Portugal landmarks, the Monument to the Discoveries in Belém on the River Tagus in Lisbon.
Monument of the Discoveries, Belem, Lisbon
The Discoveries Monument (Padrão dos Descobrimentos) is one of the three main sites in Belém, Lisbon, along with the World Heritage Jeronimos Monastery and Belém Tower. Whereas the Monastery and Tower are among the best examples of the ornate Manueline variant of late Gothic architecture, the Monument to the Discoveries is a great big slab of Salazar-era concrete and stone, a gigantic riverside monolith with statues of Portugal’s foremost seafarers and explorers.
Unlike some totalitarian architecture in Europe, the Monument to the Discoveries becomes easier on the eye as you approach it. The slab part of the monument is 56 metres high, and is worth visiting for the view over the map of the world and the Jeronimos Monastery on the other side of the park.
Figures of explorers, sailors and navigators adorn the sides of the monument, gradually rising up an imaginary ship deck, culminating in a statue of Dom Infante Henrique, Prince Henry the Navigator. He instigated many early Portuguese voyages of discovery from his base in Sagres on the Costa Vicentina, and the completion of the Monument in 1960 was timed to commemorate the 500th anniversary of his death.
Other explorers represented include Gil Eanes, Vasco de Gama, Ferdinand Magellan and Bartolomeu Dias.
Tickets are only available through this link or in person at the Monument.
Tours: This yellow boat Tagus River cruise takes you from the Praça do Comerçio in the centre of Lisbon, along the river, passing beneath the Ponte 25 de Abril bridge, eventually reaching the Monument to the Discoveries and Belem Tower.
And this Belém walking tour includes the Monument to the Discoveries, the Jeronimos Monastery and an optional stop-off at Pasteis de Belém to sample the delicious custard tarts.
Where To Stay – Palacio das Especiarias – centuries-old palace in hillside Chiado, close to the famous Bica funicular railway
Fascist Architecture In Europe – Spain
El Valle de los Caidos – The Valley of the Fallen
Grim tunnelled ‘basilica’ supposedly a memorial to those who died during the Spanish Civil War
The Valley of the Fallen is one of the grotesque authoritarian monuments ever built. It’s ostensibly a memorial to ‘the fallen’ of the Spanish Civil War. It was partly built by prisoners from the defeated Republican movement, and those who volunteered for the scheme were rewarded with a reduction in their prison sentences.
The complex was built between 1940 and 1958, the site in the Sierra de Guadarrama mountains marked by a massive (he was a fascist, after all) hilltop cross, 150 metres (490 feet) high. The enormous bulky statues of the four Evangelists outside the Basilica give a further hint of what to expect inside.
The interior of the church is essentially a tunnel, cut into the hillside below the giant cross. The guidebook I picked up when I visited suggested that it was inspired by the austere Royal Monastery of El Escorial a few miles away.
It’s far grimmer than that. While priests shuffled around and genuflected every time they had to pass the high altar, all I could think of was the false sanctity of this place. There is nothing holy about it, it’s just a giant hole in the ground, no different to a road or railway tunnel anywhere in the world.
Towards the end of this tunnel of gloom, for 35 years Generalissimo Franco lay interred near the high altar. There had long been concern in Spain about this, particularly any perceived glorification of the brutal dictator. Eventually in 2019, his remains were removed to a cemetery in Madrid. He may have been removed, but it’s still one of the most disquieting places you’ll ever visit in Europe.
Getting there: Bus 661 from Moncloa Metro station in Madrid to San Lorenzo de El Escorial bus station. From there take daily 3.15 pm 660A service to El Valle. The return bus leaves at 5.30 pm.
Tours: This tour from Madrid includes both El Escorial Monastery and the Valley of the Fallen.
Where To Stay – stay in Madrid and cheer yourself up with a night on the fabulous town – and Hotel Atlantico on Gran Via is a great place to stay.
Fascist Architecture in Europe – Final Thoughts
I hope you’ve enjoyed this article, and that if you’re passing any of these places you have time to visit them. As is the case with Communist architecture in Europe, there are some downright ugly buildings, and some that could well, almost be called attractive. Take a look at some of these articles for more places to visit related to 20th-century history in Europe:
The Nazi Period And World War Two
Visiting Auschwitz – Birkenau – Helpful Tips And What To Expect
Prague World War 2 Sites – discover Prague’s Second World War locations
Heydrich Assassination Site Prague – the location of one of the most audacious assassinations of World War Two
Visiting Terezin Concentration Camp – complete guide to the infamous Theresienstadt Ghetto near Prague
Nuremberg Nazi Sites – 7 places to visit including the Nazi Party Rally Grounds
Berlin World War 2 Sites – 15 locations from the Second World War in the German capital
Communism and the Cold War
Life Under Communism – What Was It Like? – 10 life stories from the Eastern Bloc
Communist Prague – 18 fascinating places to explore
Berlin Cold War Sites – the Berlin Wall, Stasi prisons and much more
Retro Museum Prague – the best museum on everyday life under communism that I’ve visited in Europe
Cold War Museum Prague – an unnerving trip down into a nuclear bunker below picturesque Prague
Stasi Museum Dresden – a shocking insight into the dreaded East German secret police
Stasi Museum Leipzig – exhaustive collection in the former offices of the secret police in the city where the Socialist Revolution ground to its final halt
Retro Museum Prague – the best museum on everyday life under communism that I’ve visited in Europe