Forlì, City of the Twentieth Century

Between the 1920s and 1940s, Forlì, Mussolini's home province, was transformed by a major urban planning project. The result is the district that runs from the station to Piazza Saffi along Viale della Libertà: one of the most compact collections of rationalist architecture in Italy, now understood as a historical record of an era.

The route starts at Piazzale della Vittoria, with the War Memorial by Cesare Bazzani, a tall column with the statue of Victory on top. Around it stand the former Collegio Aeronautico, with its mosaics dedicated to flight, and other public buildings from the period.

Along Viale della Libertà you'll find the former GIL, the Casa della Gioventù Italiana del Littorio, designed by Cesare Valle and built between 1933 and 1935: a complex with a tower, gymnasium, theatre and swimming pool, one of the finest examples of Italian rationalism.

Forlì leads the European ATRIUM project, a Council of Europe cultural route dedicated to the architecture of twentieth-century totalitarian regimes: not to celebrate them, but to understand them. You can walk through the district in an hour; interiors can only be seen on guided tours.