00:00Benito Mussolini dreaming of a new Roman Empire aligned with Adolf Hitler in an
00:09effort to expand their territories and spread their fascist ideology but as
00:18World War two came to Italy Mussolini's hubris led to his downfall and threatened
00:25the destruction of ancient cities Italy was ravaged by two external forces
00:37the Allies advanced from the south trying to liberate the country while Germany tried
00:44to tighten its grip by the war's end Italy was left politically and economically
00:54crippled with industries and ruins and over a million people homeless and
01:00starving
01:04but as devastating as this was Italians saw it as another layer of history they
01:11strive to rebuild their society and finally turn their backs on a regime that
01:16led to the greatest conflict in history
01:26the second world war engulfed the globe
01:32unleashing super weapons that devastated cities and reduced magnificent historic and cultural
01:39landmarks to rubble essential infrastructure crumbled and the very fabric of society was torn apart
01:47but from the devastation nations were reborn
01:51vast recovery efforts focused on repairing the physical damage and restoring social and cultural
01:57icons as these nations rose from the ashes of world war two
02:10Italy has been a cradle of cultural and historical significance for thousands of years
02:18from the power and grandeur of ancient empires
02:20to the rebirth of art science and philosophy
02:27Italy thrust the western world towards creativity and inquiry
02:35and the layers of history are written in its ancient buildings in beautiful cities that have stood the test of time
02:42but the 20th century brought another set of challenges that would once again threaten italy's historic treasures
03:00by the 1920s the nation was struggling through major social change
03:05disillusionment with the unfulfilled promises from the first world war
03:12fueled anger among veterans and citizens who felt the sacrifices were in vain
03:20the war had strained the country's finances leading to high national debt and rampant inflation
03:28industry was struggling to transform to a peacetime economy leading to massive layoffs
03:34and the destruction of farmland led to severe food shortages
03:44rising social tensions and a fractured government created fertile ground for radical ideologies
03:51leading to the rise of benito mussolini who promised to restore national pride and order
03:56general muscolini comes to power in 1922 as leader of the national fascist party
04:09he leads the march on rome which brings him to power and he very quickly imposes a dictatorship
04:15on italy it becomes very dangerous to voice any political opposition
04:19while hitler's dreaming of a thousand-year reich mussolini is dreaming of a new roman empire
04:28the fascist regime launched ambitious public works projects to increase employment and stimulate economic growth
04:39they also strengthened steel chemical and armaments industries which were essential for a military build-up
04:46so
04:49mussolini aimed to expand italy's power and influence and saw an alliance with hitler's nazi germany
04:56as the means to bolster his imperial ambitions
04:58The Rome-Berlin Axis was formed on the 25th of October 1936.
05:11The alliance strengthened both countries' geopolitical position and opened up trade.
05:16It created a united front against the Allies and suggested a broader acceptance of fascist
05:22policies across Europe.
05:27Many Italians supported the partnership, seeing it as a return of the nation's prestige.
05:38Mussolini's imperial expansion saw successes in the late 1930s, occupying Ethiopia, Libya
05:46and Albania.
05:48But these conflicts were seriously depleting Italy's resources.
05:54In May 1939, Italy and Germany signed the Pact of Steel, formalizing their mutual support
06:01and tying Italy's fate to Nazi Germany's.
06:05Despite the Pact, Italy hesitated entering the war when Germany invaded Poland in September
06:161939, effectively starting World War II.
06:22Mussolini sought to avoid conflict until he was better equipped.
06:26Italy enters World War II in June 1940, around about the time of the fall of France, when
06:35it seems like a really, really foolproof bet to fall in with Germany.
06:43Mussolini admires strongmen and Hitler is a strongman of Europe.
06:47They've already been allies, but this is the point in which he decides to throw his hat into
06:52the ring with Hitler.
06:56Mussolini's efforts to achieve strategic and military objectives quickly faltered.
07:06The Italian invasion of Greece in October 1940 ended in failure after a protracted and costly
07:13conflict, exposing Italy's dependence on Germany.
07:17After initial success in North Africa, Italy was overpowered by more effective British counterattacks.
07:31Mussolini's ambitions to fight on multiple fronts surpassed Italy's military capabilities,
07:37revealing a lack of strategic planning and coordination.
07:44Mussolini really was fighting for this idea of greatness, but it wasn't necessarily the
07:49greatness of Italy he was after, it was the greatness of Mussolini.
07:54He really wanted to cement his own place in history.
08:00By mid-1943, Italy had suffered defeats on multiple fronts.
08:07In North Africa, Allied forces had captured 275,000 Axis troops.
08:13And on the Eastern Front, 75,000 Italian soldiers died from wounds, frostbite and starvation.
08:25At home, Italians were dissatisfied with the war effort and Mussolini's leadership, leading
08:31leading to increased public unrest and resistance.
08:41The Allied invasion of Sicily on the 9th of July 1943 marked the collapse of Mussolini's regime.
08:47His popularity plummeted, and the Grand Council of Fascism voted him out as Prime Minister.
08:59He was replaced by Marshal Pietro Bedoglio and arrested.
09:05Italy formally surrendered to the Allies on the 8th of September 1943.
09:13But Hitler was not letting the country go without a fight.
09:17He quickly occupied Rome.
09:19And on the 12th of September, German SS commandos rescued Mussolini from incarceration.
09:27And he was installed as leader of the Italian Social Republic.
09:31A Nazi puppet regime.
09:35For 18 months, the Allies fought their way north from Sicily through strong German defences.
09:43Napoleon famously said that Italy's like a boot, and you should enter it from the top.
09:50Now, the Allies were trying to do the opposite.
09:52They were trying to enter through the toe.
09:54And the problem with that is that there is a spine of mountains,
09:59which reaches all the way from the bottom of Italy right to the top.
10:02And coming off those mountains are rivers leading down to the sea.
10:05So if you advance up the coastline, you have to cross river after river after river,
10:10each of which can be made into a defensive line.
10:13The alternative is to go through the mountains,
10:16where you're facing mountain after mountain after mountain.
10:19Mountain fighting is famously difficult.
10:22So the progress of the Allies up through Italy was dreadfully slow,
10:27because it was really a terrain built for defence.
10:34As the Allies advanced, Italian cities such as Salerno and Naples
10:38were severely damaged from bombings and ground combat,
10:42spreading further destruction across a country already weakened by years of war.
10:47the Germans established several defensive lines across Italy.
10:59The Gustaf Line slowed the Allied advance,
11:02and resulted in major battles to break defences at Casino,
11:06130 kilometers southeast of Rome.
11:09Monte Casino Abbey is a 1,500-year-old monastery founded by Saint Benedict.
11:24Monte Casino is one of the most important religious sites in all Italy.
11:30In the Monte Casino you can find the body of San Bernardo,
11:35that was the founder of the monastic order all beyond Italy.
11:40This place was very important because not only for the monastery itself,
11:44but also for the library and the archives.
11:47Because from the beginning, all the priors collected books and manuscripts,
11:52and the ancient materials,
11:55generating one of the most important libraries in Europe at that time.
12:01Monte Casino was in the centre of the Gustaf Line.
12:04The Gustaf Line fought the German defensive line
12:07not to allow the Allies to arrive to Rome.
12:11It was a linchpin in this campaign against the Germans.
12:15The Allies needed to really take control of this particular spot.
12:20In January 1944, the Allies launched offensives to capture the area.
12:26Suspicious the Germans were using the ancient abbey as a stronghold.
12:34The extent of the destruction was huge.
12:37The 15th of February 1944,
12:40more than 200 bombers bombed the monastery for one day and one night.
12:461,150 tons of high explosives and incendiary devices were dropped on the abbey.
12:58Multiple assaults led to Allied victory on the 17th of May 1944.
13:05This broke the Gustaf Line, opening the road to Rome,
13:09which was liberated on the 4th of June.
13:16But the historic abbey had been reduced to rubble.
13:21I don't think anyone really expected a place like Monte Casino to get bombed.
13:26You know, there was a lot lost,
13:27but also just really like a shock to the system of the Italian people.
13:34Every time you destroy a symbol,
13:36the reaction is very strong and very vital.
13:41So they decided to do it and to rebuild it as it was.
13:47Reconstruction began in 1950.
13:50The monks worked side-by-side with craftspeople to restore the monastery.
13:57The collaboration between the monks and the traditional carpenters
14:02has been very important and brought the idea that the building is not just bricks,
14:08but it's also swords.
14:10They managed together to have a more complete reconstruction of the being itself.
14:16The reconstruction of Monte Casino Abbey was guided by historical records
14:23and was finally completed in 1964.
14:32Fractures and voids in the bedrock were filled,
14:35and new foundations were laid using reinforced concrete.
14:41External walls were built using surviving remnants
14:43and locally sourced limestone.
14:47New blocks were hand-cut to retain an irregular and organic quality,
14:52maintaining the medieval appearance.
14:55The structural framework combined traditional load-bearing walls
14:59with modern steel support systems,
15:02including hidden reinforced concrete ribs
15:05in the interior vaults of the basilica.
15:07surviving sections of the original basilica's mosaic floors were restored,
15:15and new sections were crafted to match.
15:22Steel reinforcements were incorporated into the timber framework
15:26to support the abbey's new roof.
15:27It was decided to rebuild it in the same shape, in the same site,
15:37with the same scale, using almost all the stone that was inside.
15:42So if a visitor could go now to Monte Casino,
15:46he or she can visit the same building lost during the bombings.
15:50The reconstructed abbey was consecrated in 1964 by Pope Paul VI.
16:08The motto,
16:19meaning having been cut down, it flourishes,
16:23was chosen post-reconstruction,
16:26epitomizing its enduring spirit of renewal.
16:30So the idea of rebuilding it there, in that way,
16:36was a way to symbolize the fact that cultures and knowledge
16:42can survive the brutality of the war.
16:50The Allies had been conducting bombing raids in Italy since 1940.
16:55But they intensified in July 1943,
17:00after the Allies captured Sicily.
17:07They targeted transportation networks,
17:10industrial centers and urban areas.
17:15These bombings crippled Italy's industrial production
17:18and claimed 59,000 Italian lives.
17:28Milan, a key Allied target due to its industrial significance,
17:33suffered severe bombings from 1940 to 1944.
17:36The heaviest raid occurred in August 1943.
17:47The heaviest raid occurred in August 1943.
17:501,252 tons of bombs were dropped,
18:03causing massive fires and devastation.
18:10Remarkably, Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper survived.
18:14Shielded by a makeshift roof and scaffolding.
18:19Though the surrounding Santa Maria della Grazia convent,
18:24where the painting was housed,
18:26was mostly destroyed.
18:34The raids caused tens of thousands of deaths
18:37and left over 400,000 people homeless.
18:40When the city is devastated by war,
18:44the whole population feel completely astonished,
18:49without any direction, no?
18:51You see how the people, in a way,
18:53try to survive daily.
18:55So we can say that the reconstruction started first
18:57in the heads of people,
18:59in the minds of people,
19:00during the war,
19:01waiting for the end of these devastating conflicts.
19:04Teatro alla Scala in Milan is the most famous Italian theatre house,
19:16and one of the leading opera houses worldwide.
19:21It has been the focus of Milanese culture since it first opened in 1778.
19:25We can describe the building as a very traditional classical theatre.
19:33The theatre has been linked to the life of the city from the beginning,
19:38not as an aristocratic theatre,
19:40but as a public theatre for middle class and for bourgeoisie.
19:46The theatre was significantly damaged in the bombing raid
19:48between the 15th and 16th of August 1943.
19:55The destruction of the Teatro alla Scala was a real damage for the city.
20:00For the building itself, but also for the psychology of people.
20:03The people reacted with panic,
20:05because the theatre of the La Scala was a symbol of the city.
20:09All the main galleries have been destroyed,
20:13all the decorations have been destroyed,
20:14but fortunately not the stage,
20:16because there was a kind of iron elements
20:19separating the stage from the theatre itself,
20:21which in a way saved the stage itself.
20:24The main façade was still there,
20:26so they had to work on the building itself,
20:29to the centre, to the core of the building.
20:33The restoration began in 1946.
20:35It focused on preserving the historical and artistic integrity
20:39of the original design,
20:41while incorporating modern improvements.
20:46The foundation and walls were strengthened
20:48using modern concrete and steel reinforcements.
20:51Traditional materials including stone, brick and wood,
20:56wrapped the walls, matching areas of the remaining exterior.
20:59A new roof was erected, reinforced with steel,
21:06and artisans carefully restored the auditorium's opulent baroque
21:11and neoclassical interior.
21:15The stage technology, acoustics and infrastructure were modernised,
21:20including lighting, rigging and sound systems.
21:23From historical records, the historical building was faithfully restored,
21:28retaining the original architectural lines.
21:32The roof has been completely rebuilt, but using concrete and not wood anymore.
21:40But the interior, the amphitheatre has been rebuilt,
21:44using a kind of neoclassical language.
21:50So let's say the structure of the building is truly modern,
21:52but the image of the building in a way brings us back to the memory of the building as it was.
22:00Skilled artisans painstakingly recreated frescoes and gold leaf decorations adorning the walls.
22:11Marble was used extensively to preserve the elegance of the grand foyer and staircases.
22:16On the 11th of May 1946, the Teatro alla Scala reopened in all its original splendour,
22:39with a memorable concert conducted by Arturo Toscanini.
22:48The reconstruction of the Scala symbolises so much for the Italian population.
22:54It's a theatre of about 3,000 people, and outside in the square,
22:591,000 people waiting and listening to music.
23:01The city came back to life, and they came back to life thanks to the music of the Teatro della Scala,
23:10and the music of the classical sounds played by Toscanini for everybody.
23:14The Teatro della Scala is the symbol of the music in Milano,
23:29but I would say that in the last 50 years, the Teatro della Scala became the symbol of Italian music in Italy and in the world.
23:35If we look at Monte Cassino or the Teatro della Scala,
23:46we don't look only at a building, but we look at symbols,
23:51we look at shared memories for the inhabitants of those cities.
23:54So it was quite natural for the people that those buildings were rebuilt in the same way.
24:05As for them, they were not only buildings, but pieces of their lives.
24:10Three hundred kilometres away, more ancient landmarks would suffer a dire fate,
24:28as Germany lost their grip on the country.
24:33After Italy's formal surrender to the Allies,
24:36German forces occupied Florence from September 10, 1943.
24:42They wanted to establish the Gothic Line,
24:46Germany's last major defensive line in the north of Italy.
24:55But on the 3rd of August 1944, as the Allies advanced,
25:01retreating Germans detonated charges along Florence's key connecting bridges
25:05to slow their pursuers.
25:06The Ponte a la Caralla, Ponte Santa Trinita, Ponte a la Grazia,
25:10as well as Ponte di San Nicolo, were all destroyed.
25:27The districts of Florence became separated.
25:32And the set of bridges has been built between Middle Ages and post-Renascence,
25:33let's say the Baroque period, to connect the city.
25:34And the set of bridges has been built between Middle Ages and post-Renascence,
25:36let's say the Baroque period, to connect the city.
25:38So the destruction of the bridges of Florence not only impacted as an emotional fact,
25:44but it also impacted in the very historical core of the city.
25:47As those bridges connected the two sides of the city centre.
25:57The Ponte a la Grazia was first constructed in 1227 and rebuilt in 1345 with nine arches,
26:07making it the longest in Florence.
26:11Ponte Santa Trinita means Holy Trinity Bridge and is characterised by three flattened ellipses.
26:24The Santa Trinita Bridge was the one designed by Amanati, probably with the presence of Michael Angel,
26:41who was there around, and there were four beautiful sculptures of the four seasons.
26:46The district of Ultrarano was connected by the Ponte alla Carrella,
26:52the first wooden version of the bridge dated from 1218.
27:02Surprisingly, one of Florence's most beautiful historic bridges was spared.
27:09The Ponte Vecchio survived. There are many stories.
27:12One says that a person cut the explosive, not to allow them to explode.
27:18Another one says that apparently Hitler says not to do it.
27:21We don't know. We still don't know it.
27:22But the fact that Ponte Vecchio survived,
27:24the other bridges has been completely demolished.
27:31Instead of destroying the bridge,
27:33German forces demolished the historic area south of it.
27:37On the 4th of August 1944, Allied forces found the bridge intact and entered Florence.
27:52If you destroy the elements of connection of the city, the symbols of the city itself,
27:57this was affecting very much the people of Florence,
28:00and the immediate reaction was to rebuild them as soon as it was possible.
28:04First of all, they designed a competition.
28:08I think this is very interesting one.
28:10To design immediately a competition to bring the best energies,
28:13to design something was very important.
28:16The second one was how to balance the possibility to keep the same structure of the bridge,
28:22like three arches or five arches,
28:25in new technology and traditional elements.
28:28For the Ponte alla Grazia, precast concrete piles were driven deep into the riverbed,
28:40providing a stable base.
28:42Four slender concrete piers were poured,
28:45using caissons to provide a dry working environment.
28:48A weir was added under the bridge to regulate the river's flow and control erosion.
28:55Five arches were carefully formed on site to have a smooth finish.
29:01And this was contrasted with Tuscan sandstone cladding the piers,
29:06for a traditional renaissance aesthetic.
29:18The Arno River was dammed for the restoration of the Ponte Santa Trinita.
29:24Original stone blocks were recovered from the riverbed,
29:27and combined with new, precisely cut blocks,
29:30for an authentic reconstruction.
29:33Special scaffolding techniques were used to support the elliptical arches,
29:37allowing for each stone to be laid with historical accuracy.
29:48The design of the bridge was to keep the same kind of, let's say, size,
29:53the three arches, to work on this idea of the low curve of the bridge
29:58as it was designed by Ammanati.
30:02It took 10 years to do it.
30:11The process of reconstruction of the bridges was very interesting.
30:17Using concrete as a structure, using modern technology to build them,
30:21but in the meantime, mixing the languages of the façade
30:25as a kind of interpretation of the medieval language.
30:30So I think the balance between those two elements
30:32is very interesting, even today.
30:40The restored historic bridges of Florence
30:42symbolise the city's centuries of resilience.
30:51The liberation of Florence in August 1944 was a pivotal moment in the war in Italy.
31:04It marked a significant step in the Allied advance up the peninsula
31:08and proved the effectiveness of partisan and Allied cooperation.
31:11In April 1945, the Allies launched the Spring Offensive,
31:21swiftly advancing through northern Italy as partisans seized control of towns and cities.
31:31Mussolini fled the Allied advance
31:33and headed towards the Swiss border, disguised as a soldier in a German convoy.
31:41On the 27th of April 1945,
31:44he was intercepted by Italian partisans near Dongo on Lake Como.
31:52He was executed by a partisan firing squad to prevent his escape,
31:56or a prolonged trial.
31:57Mussolini's body was hung upside down in Milan's Piazzale Loreto,
32:06symbolising the end of fascist rule in Italy.
32:18The next day, German leaders in Italy, defying orders from Berlin, negotiated surrender.
32:24Mussolini's death and the German surrender marked the end of a dictatorship in Italy
32:33and laid the foundation for the Italian Republic.
32:44The gruelling 20-month campaign to liberate Italy came at a high cost.
32:49150,000 Germans, 26,000 Italians and 320,000 Allied troops lost their lives.
33:04And now, Italy had to grapple with economic ruin, industrial upheaval and social disarray.
33:10In the aftermath of war, you think about the people and the loss of history,
33:18a loss of identity, loss of culture.
33:21They were in a unique position in that they were both enemy and ally, in a sense.
33:26So there's this sort of post-war conflict going on within the nation itself,
33:33the national identity, dealing with its fascist past and how to move on in the future.
33:41By 1951, 37% of Italians lived in overcrowded conditions,
33:48with over 20% of southern Italians living with more than six people per room.
33:53So the Italian democratic government launched the Ina Casa Plan in 1949
34:03for answering the shortage of housing,
34:08but above all for employing the building sector
34:12as the sector for employing unskilled people.
34:15The Ina Casa Plan created around 400,000 housing units in Italy, from 1949 to 1963.
34:30At its peak, they were building somewhere between 500 and 700 units of housing per week.
34:37This also provided an extraordinary amount of jobs to people.
34:40We can consider Ina Casa an amazing experiment because it involves politics,
34:46technology, architecture, a social idea and a cultural and symbolic vision.
34:54The neighbourhoods were created using traditional building methods,
34:58focused on distinct localised aesthetics and employing local people.
35:02Italy was at the end of the war with a lot of shortage of materials,
35:09no steel for the concrete.
35:11And so the brick, the mortar, wood became the materials.
35:16The traditional material which has been used to build all the cities and villages for 2,000 years
35:21became the same material to build the new Ina Casa area.
35:24After the war, there was large internal migration.
35:31People who once fought against each other were now neighbours,
35:35able to buy their houses and form new communities.
35:39For the first time, they decided that people could be the owner of the house.
35:44And this was an amazing cultural transformation
35:47because it was not anymore houses for rent, but houses for new owners.
35:51Every week, hundreds of Italian families moved from shantytowns, caves and barracks
36:00into their new Ina Casa homes.
36:05The Ina Casa plan increased the standard of living of the neediest,
36:10unifying the nation with human-scaled homes that integrated local traditions.
36:15But in Milan, one particular project took a different approach.
36:25By embracing modernist principles, while drawing inspiration from the city's medieval heritage.
36:33Before World War II, Milan's historic centre was a vibrant area,
36:39reflecting the city's status as an economic and cultural hub.
36:43However, the narrow streets meant fires spread quickly during heavy Allied bombings between 1942 and 1944,
36:54leading to widespread destruction.
36:57post-war reconstruction required large-scale efforts,
37:05balancing the preservation of historical elements with the introduction of modernist architecture into the cityscape.
37:11The original site of Tori Velasca was basically a quarter.
37:20This area has been heavily hit, and so there was a necessity to rebuild it.
37:25The BBPR architectural firm made a bold proposal.
37:31A single high-rise building detached from the surrounding blocks.
37:39They say, instead of rebuilding the quarter itself, consuming a lot of soil,
37:45we prefer to save space on the ground floor offering to the city itself and to build a high tower.
37:50The tower, known as Tori Velasca, needed to connect to its historic setting.
37:59The high tower must be one metre lower than the Dome of Milan, which was very close.
38:04And keeping a kind of balance and relationship between the two monuments, the monuments of the city and the new monuments of the reconstruction.
38:15Construction started in 1956 and took two years to complete.
38:21Deep concrete piles were driven about 33 metres into the ground for stability.
38:32A concrete core was constructed using a slip-forming technique, allowing for rapid vertical construction.
38:42This core would support the upper floors and contain elevator shafts and services.
38:46Each floor was extended gradually from the central core, using precise engineering to balance the precast concrete elements of the upper levels.
39:02The 28-storey tower rises to 106 metres and features a distinctive overhang from the 18th to the top floor, reminiscent of a mushroom.
39:16This cantilevered section, reinforced with steel, is supported by 20 oblique parapet beams that connect it to the narrower floors below.
39:32These beams evoke the medieval watchtowers of Italian castles, linking the building to its historical roots.
39:39The lower levels are clad in brick, reflecting the traditional Lombard style and enhancing the tower's sense of height.
39:52The upper levels are covered with a double layer of render, containing granules of pink Verona marble.
39:58The render creates an iridescent pink-gray hue that shifts with a changing light.
40:07I think it was the intention of the architects to do something that was completely anti-international style.
40:22And it was to be truly of Milan, despite probably going against the fashion of the time.
40:32It has persisted and it has persisted to become an icon and a symbol of the city.
40:37Intensified allied attacks from June 1943 led to the downfall of Mussolini in July.
40:55And Italy surrendered to the allies in September.
40:58But Germany still occupied much of the country.
41:07Without an organized army, Italian citizens formed a resistance movement.
41:14And with support from the allies, partisan groups spread from the mountains to the lowlands and into the cities, leading to fierce attacks on German troops.
41:28There was one pivotal incident that led to one of the most solemn and confronting memorials in Italy.
41:37In the heart of Rome, near the Palazzo del Quirinale, lies an ordinary neighborhood street called Via Razzella.
41:45On the 23rd of March 1944, partisans detonated a bomb, instantly killing 33 men from the German order police.
42:04And wounding 110 more people, including 50 civilians.
42:08The Germans quickly retaliated.
42:22It was decided that for every one German soldier killed, they would kill 10 Italians.
42:29Jews, political prisoners, even just random citizens.
42:34335 Italian prisoners were taken, five more than ordered.
42:40And they brought them in the outskirts of Rome, in this cave, in this cave of stone.
42:51And they killed them, one after the other.
42:54Each person has been called by name and killed.
42:57And they disappeared.
42:58The massacre was perpetrated without prior public notice, inside the tunnels of the disused quarries of Pozzolana, near the Via Adiatina.
43:14The location for the massacre was chosen because they were caves, it was outside of the city, and it could be hidden.
43:24The victims were buried under tons of rock.
43:28Explosives were detonated to seal the caves and conceal the atrocity.
43:34When Rome has been liberated by the Allies, immediately all the families of people, which has disappeared that night, try to look for the bodies.
43:52Finally, somebody says that the people has been brought by truck in the outskirts, so they arrived in the cave, they took off the stone and they discovered all the bodies.
44:14It was so emotional that the new democratic state decided to build a mausoleum over the place in which those people were hidden and kept.
44:36Planning began immediately after the war, with construction beginning in 1949.
44:49And this was the first real building built after the end of the war in Italy.
44:55So this is an amazing value and symbolic significance for all Italian history.
45:00The Fosse Adiatinae site was carefully excavated to ensure preservation of the victim's mass grave.
45:11Their remains were carefully exhumed and reinterred on site.
45:20An area of 480 square meters was excavated into the quarry.
45:25Then reinforced with concrete and stone.
45:32335 tombs, carved from travertine limestone, were lowered into position.
45:39Each was sealed with a 500 kilogram lid made from the same limestone.
45:46And bearing the inscription of the victim's name.
45:49Six small pillars support a light reinforced concrete roof.
45:57It appears to float above the tombs, providing a sense of solemnity.
46:03The modernist architecture of the Fosse Adiatinae mausoleum is a sombre and personal tribute.
46:10Preserving the memory of 335 souls.
46:14Stone from the caves has been laid in the floors and walls of the mausoleum.
46:21Pathways and open spaces guide visitors through the site, encouraging reflection.
46:28An abstract twisted bronze gate, created by Mirko Basildela, was installed at the entrance of the caves.
46:39So there's a sculpture of three men in different stages of life.
46:44And it represents the ages of the people who were killed, from a 15-year-old boy to a 70-year-old man.
46:54The mausoleum was completed in 1950 and inaugurated on March the 24th.
47:09The sixth anniversary of the massacre.
47:13In addition to symbolizing the collective grief of the Italian people,
47:17the memorial also symbolizes the Italian resistance in a way.
47:21The Fosse Adiatinae is one of the most emotional and loved sites, not only in the city of Rome, but I would say in entire Italy.
47:33The Fosse Adiatinae mausoleum stands as a striking national monument that embodies Italy's enduring commitment to honour the victims of fascist oppression.
47:49Italy's experience during World War II was distinctive compared to other European countries.
48:02The nation faced destruction from both Allied and German forces.
48:08And internal conflicts further fragmented its social fabric.
48:21Nevertheless, Italy emerged from the ashes with resilience.
48:25The Italian cities are the outcome of thousands and thousands of years.
48:32And we look at the city not as an artefact, but as the superimposition of a lot of hands, a lot of historical events and a lot of layers.
48:42So the war was just one episode in the long and complex urban histories of our cities.
48:53Italy undertook the meticulous restoration of historic sites.
48:57It tackled a national housing crisis through innovative local projects.
49:10And it embraced modernist architecture in a uniquely Italian way.
49:16All while looking optimistically toward the future.
49:21To the future.
49:51Transcription by CastingWords
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