The Drafting of a Master Plan for "Roma Capitale": an Exordium Author(S): Spiro Kostof Source: Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Vol

Home , Prati, Trastevere

The Drafting of a Master Plan for "Roma Capitale": An Exordium Author(s): Spiro Kostof Source: Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Vol. 35, No. 1 (Mar., 1976), pp. 5- 20 Published by: Society of Architectural Historians Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/988967 Accessed: 07/03/2010 15:27

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.

Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=sah.

Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

Society of Architectural Historians is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians.

http://www.jstor.org The Drafting of a Master Plan for Roma Capitale: An Exordium

SPIRO KOSTOF University of California, Berkeley

THE FIRST MASTER PLAN of modern Rome has not had ment ensured the continued existence of a privileged class many friends.1Fascist commentarychided its timidity. Post- which lived at the expense of the people. Free enterprise war critics of the Left have been heaping scorn upon it as a helped to enlargethe scope of this rulingclass, but there was document of capitalistgreed and the exploitation of the peo- no true differencein the social substructure.The Churchre- ple. Perhaps this stern reception is inescapable. Planning is tained its hold by supplantingfeudal territorialitywith capi- quintessentiallya political act. A legal master plan exposes talism. As for the image of resurgent glory, that too was in graphic form the prevailingorder of society and the gov- shapedwith total indifferenceto the interestsof the common ernmentit sustains. And the LiberalState of the firstdecades man. Where the profit and convenience of the ruling class of Italy's history as a European nation has been unpopular made it expedient, the past was summarilysacrificed. Patri- with both the Right and the Left. cian villas vanished under the developer's grid-and with In the case of Rome, the dual pressure of the resident them vanishedthe people's green. Wherethe decorumof the Churchand the mystique of ancient glory has compounded ruling class demanded the isolation of ancient relics, or politics with passion. Through one perspective,the Master ample avenues cut through the older fabric, it was common Plan of 1883 (Fig. i) was seen as the outcome of the suppres- people and their unhealthytenements that were found to be sion of the Church, especially its territorialstructure; at the standing in the way. same time, it was thought to reflectthe mean-spiritednessof It should be possible to study the Master Plan of 1883 a State unwilling to celebrate in a fitting way the modern from a third perspective,that is, to consider it a representa- resurgenceof distant splendor. It was up to the Fascist re- tive document of the course of democracyas this was under- gime to make amends on both scores. Through the opposite stood by the LiberalState. This should not mean suspending perspective, the wresting of Rome from papal rule in 1870 criticism and taking the product as the justification of the was a sham. Nothing really changed. The national govern- process, or the reverse. The aim would be to observe what happened,how it happened, and why, ratherthan engaging in ex post facto ideological polemics about what should The researchfor this paper was supportedin part through grants from the have happened. Committee on Research, of California, Bill Morrish University Berkeley. It may be that the critical attitude for such a and RichardTobias ably assistedwith the presentationby lettingme borrow proper study their scrupulousdraftsmanship. Figures 4a and 4b are by Coulter Winn, Jr. presupposes a "liberal"political stance which registersdis- The editorialassistance of Wendy Tsuji has been indispensablethroughout. comfort at the wholesale grandeurof authoritarianregimes, i. The principalcommentary on the Master Planof and its is 1883 history but declines to see in capitalism the specter of sin. found in the following: (a) a series of articles by Arturo Bianchi in Capi- original Whateverthe it is the tolium, vII (I93I), 220-233 and 417-428; ix (I933), 53-71, 29I-3I2, and case, position of this writerthat a care- 498-515; x (934), 33-43 and 278-298; xi (1935), 427-438; (b) A. Caracci- ful and complete account of the Master Plan of 1883 remains olo, Roma dal alla crisi dello Stato liberale capitale Risorgimento (Rome, unachieved.To undertakethis task entails the investigative I956), pp. 52-81; (c) M. Piacentiniand F. Guidi, Le vicendeedilizie di Roma of all and dal 1870 ad oggi (Rome, n.d.), pp. II-32; (d) M. Zocca in F. Castagnoli et chronicling events, issues, personalities that inal., Topografiae urbanisticadi Roma (Bologna, 1958), pp. 551-577; (e) I. formed the draftingof this firstofficial plan for the new capi- Insolera, Roma moderna, un secolo di storia urbanistica,znd ed. (Rome, tal of Italy-from the appointment of an initial pp. I. "Storiadel di Roma: planning I97I), I8-59; (f) Insolera, primopiano regolatore commission on a mere ten after the I870-I874," in Roma, citta e piani (Turin, n.d. [I959]), pp. 74-94; (g) S. 30 SeptemberI870, days Kostof, The Third Rome, i870-I950: Trafficand Glory (Berkeley,1973), Breach of Porta Pia and the collapse of papal power, to the passim, esp. pp. 41-45. culminating sessions of the city council in the summer of 5 Pi,r?x d' Arm. I

1: , I ,, \ - , I .?..*:-

?1 -r 'YY;.]IIi""" ..' ?i' ;? :h? O"? S :i Cj4?1'.. `J M,-A.. --- ?? A i :? :,5?/' *-- \e ?- /ii??' '"`o ?- 1 *iI *? fi 3 Ik .1C ..1 r? .? 5 j 18t c" \t

i'ciik,?Ci-Jr,L t t: i- n . . 'T;I? C13) c Y i -- tr; r; ?: c N. r i 3~;`;? ?,e ?,? r' .ip.. rer d'CI ... .- f h ,, F -(;eZ:IJPTfZ: ;FC' ?? L?. V ;5h

- ? ?r.-'??1.. - i: t tur= \\'(uP- DISEGNO DIMOSTRATIVO n??.*-. r I hr. r < -*- I ,:IE .->- E 1L ikr?rClu :C PIANORLEWATI E I i sL'r. AIFLIAMEllTI r: h D$ILA CITTlA D

LEGGENDA _' ,A

11-

' ~mol~zt'o,t l Ltr: )ertar a O . mpl.m'nIri to d i str(ade W N. IN RELAZIONEALLA LEGGE SUL CONCORSO DELO STATO .v, u,,irl,rIr,,,- totz,.I tr - e NELL SPESFEDIUZIE IELLA CAPTALE '& J:ln,}udrt,er? i,ildlust,l,' I Alrwbtodal Com%llo C.wmai nia s1ta Fe,Jrtod quartl l' ,ll. ostrt,rs , f del ZU;ni^noz 188''

'_ Vial.W, talliI PW8UCAZIONE AUTORIZZATA Proporz,one 1 8000 DAL COMUNE DI ROMA 3,

Fig. i. The Master Plan of I883 (courtesy: The Robert H. Lowie Museum of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley). 6

I882 when, its very last detail having been debated and ap- solved itself. Emperorand Prefect,thereafter, made all major proved, jubilant councilmen proposed to have the plan planning decisions. Periodicallythe Municipal Council and painted in the halls of the Capitoline or engravedon marble the Legislative Assembly were consulted on financial mat- like the ancient Formaurbis, "to retain of it perpetualmem- ters, but even then the authorityof the potent two-man team ory."2 was, for the most part, unchallengeable.3 It is a long and tangled story of politicians, engineers,and Vienna too was planned by imperial decree. On zo De- speculators,projects and counterprojects,and a three-sided cember 1857, FranzJoseph issued a proclamationaddressed jurisdictionalrivalry among State,provincial, and municipal to his Minister of the Interior,Freiherr von Bach, listing all authoritiesand the discrete factions within each; a story of the central elements for a new master plan: demolition of blunders,special interests,patriotic pride, the willful or mis- the old city walls, and the sale of the resultingland for specu- guided destructionof built patrimony, and fortunesentered lative building; prescriptions for the development of this in the fray to be multiplied manifold or lost overnight. And intermediatezone between the mediaevalcore and the out- it is a story that can be told. Many drawings still survive in lying suburbs; disposition of the new public buildings. All State and city archives,and the acts of the city council, regu- that remained was to call a competition to derive a visual larly published since 1870, provide a continual recordof the design for this willed renewal."For the purposeof obtaining contribution of the major protagonist. a ground plan, a competition is to be promoted, and a pro- The rewardfor such a scholarlyeffort is to document the grammeis to be drawnup on the lines of the principlesherein process of urban design in Rome, in the context of a demo- indicated, but neverthelesswith freedom of conditions, so cratic society and against the background of a celebrated that the competitors may be allowed free scope for the con- pattern of the past which supplied much of the content for ception of their designs, consistent with the carryingout of the abstractlines of the modern designer;to understandthe the proposals herein contained."4 remarkablecomplication of a visual program that was the But many Europeancities did not possess a legally binding result of social, political, economic, and aestheticchoices on plan, whether autocratically or democratically conceived. the part of the city, and which in turn affected measurably The principleof eminent domain was either not specifiedin the future field of these choices. law or else severely curtailed; and without this principle, While a comprehensivestudy such as the one here pro- and a strong municipaladministration, an urbanplan was a posed is in preparation,the limited purpose of the present pointlessgesture. In London, therewas no generalmunicipal paper is to set out the scope and nature of this famous blue- structureuntil the MetropolitanBoard of Works was estab- print known as "Piano regolatore e di ampliamento della lished in 1855, and even then its jurisdictionover the whole of citta di Roma" and speak of the ways and means of its crea- London was limited to matters of street lighting, drainage, tion. To assist the readerwith undetailedreferences and the and occasional "improvements" such as the opening of string of commissions and legal actions involved, a chrono- ShaftesburyAvenue. Only in i888 was the elective London logical outline of events is appended. County Council set up, and it straightaway undertook to bring about municipal reform. But the great estates continued to be planned, in all essential details, by the land- Viewed with some detachment,the Plan of 1883 should sur- owners-noble families and corporations-with minimal prise us by its very existence. The product of endless debate observance of certain city laws on building materials and and compromises, it represents an uneasy union between heights. The smooth integration of a newly planned estate private gain and public good. By contrast, nineteenth-cen- with the rest of the urban fabric was not a recognized re- tury London was planless, Paris and Vienna models of sim- sponsibility.5 ple decision making. The plan of Pariswas spawned by one Modern Italy, by contrast,provided for municipallegisla- man-Napoleon III.He drew it up as he wanted it, knowing tion of the city-formfrom the very start. On 25 June i865, in that he had the power to see it executed. He presented connection with the rebuildingof Naples, a bill was passed this plan, with lines drawn on the existing fabric in four contrastingcolors indicating relative urgency, to his newly 3. See D. H. Pinkney, Napoleon III and the Rebuilding of Prefectof the Haussmann.A plan- principally appointed Seine,Georges Paris (Princeton, 1958). ning commission set up to help the Prefect develop this 4. Quoted in G. R. and C. C. Collins, Camillo Sitte and the Birth of sketch into a full-blown masterplan met once, and then dis- Modern City Planning (New York, i965), Columbia UniversityStudies in Art History and Archaeology, 3, pp. 127-2z8. 5. For London, see among others: A. Briggs, VictorianCities (London, 1963), pp. 321-372; and D. J. Olsen, Town Planningin London, the Eigh- 2. Atti del Consiglio comunale (hereafterAtti), xii.i (1882), 478. teenth and Nineteenth Centuries(New Haven and London, I964). 7 entitled "Expropriationfor Works in the Public Interest," boroughs and the core; during the nineteenth century, in which remained in effect, with minor changes, until I942.6 addition to growing outward, these gaps in the city fabric In the context of this ExpropriationBill, works in the public were being filled in. Franz Joseph's master plan for Vienna interest (pubblica utilita) referredto projects of any scale was intended to connect the inner city with the extensive originated not only by the State and by provincial and mu- suburbantissue by developingthe void zone of the old walls. nicipal authorities, but also by corporations, private firms, But in Rome no extramuralgrowth had been witnessed and single individuals(Article z). A masterplan proposed by for centuries. The historic city, defined by the walls of Au- the city council, called piano regolatore, was an all-encom- relian and the sixteenth-seventeenth-centuryring around passing blueprint for the city-form. Article 86 of the bill the Gianicolo and the Vatican, was surroundedon all sides states: "Cities in which there is to be found a population of by empty countryside. What is more, within its legal limits at least ten thousand souls could, for the sake of the com- there were vast open spaces. Urban recovery, following the mon good determined by existing need to provide for the point of maximum shrinkageand decay in the Middle Ages, general health and requisite communications, draw up a had pushed the residentialcore toward the edges of the east- master plan in which are traced the lines to be followed in ern hills, but the slopes and summits of the Quirinal, Vimi- the rebuilding."Once preparedby the city, the plan had to nal, and Esquiline were still free of development in 1870, be offered to public scrutinyfor a period of two weeks, and and covered with vineyards, farmland, and aristocraticvil- formally adopted by the council only after due considera- las. The placement of the main station for Pius IX's railroad tion of any objections to it that might be raised by individ- system on the Viminal, south of the Baths of Diocletian, had uals and organized groups. It would then be passed on to had no immediate impact on the rural character of this the provincial authorities and to the National Council for region. Monsignor De Merode's famous layout between the Public Works (Consiglio superiore dei lavori pubblici) and exedra of the Baths and Via delle Quattro Fontanehad made signed into law by the King upon the final recommendation little headway, despite an agreement between the prelate of the Minister of Public Works (Article 87). Based on this and the city in April 1867 accordingto which the city under- document the city could initiate wholesale expropriation. took to build the roads for the new quarterand bring in the The bill distinguishedthis legal masterplan from a piano services.Although most of the lots had been sold since i866, di ampliamento. The latter applied to the expansion of the construction was very slow; the only building to be com- residential core beyond the limits of the master plan and pleted at the time of the Breachof Porta Pia was the palazzo outside its specialjurisdiction. The purposewas to set norms at the corner of the present Via Nazionale-Via Torino. to be followed by developers in suburban construction, in The south and southeasternpart of the city, with its heavy order "to ensure the proper sanitation of the new develop- concentrationof ancientremains, was also countryside.This ment, and its safe, convenient, and decorous disposition" graveyard of history-the Circus Maximus and the Anto- (Article93). Propertyowners were obliged to cede the land nine Baths, the Palatine complex, the Roman Forum, the free of charge for public streets built within the area by the Colosseum-impeded the orderly growth of the residential city. core in this direction. And it was not the only hallowed ob- Expansionwas the firstorder of businessfor the new capi- stacle to speedy expansion and the updating of the city for tal of Italy. At the time of its fall to the Royal Italian Army its new destiny. Rome was an international city. It was a on zo September 1870, papal Rome had a population of monument in its entirety, an untidy relic considered invio- about z30,000. There was now the immediate need to ac- lable by many in the Western world. Foreign opinion about commodate the anticipatedcrush in the wake of the transfer its fate could not be ignored. To the historian Ferdinand of the national government. But in this respect too the Ro- Gregorovius, an eloquent witness to the massive transfor- man case was different.The physical size of other European mation of the city after the Breach,the issue appearedclear. was severaltimes that of Rome. Parishad a capitals popula- Today,as in ancienttimes, cultured people revere Rome as themost tion of close to two million in 1870; London with its county, noblemonument of history.... Forthirteen centuries the papacy had over three million. They had long spilled out of their his- beenentrusted with the protection of Rome,and it hadcarried out its torical frame.The urbantask they faced was to integratethe taskwith the deepestunderstanding for the characterof the city. Whenits dominionwas traditionalcenter with the more recently developed periph- worldly ended,Europe, in unison,placed the Eternal City under the of united and . . . never on ery. In London large empty tracts lay between the far-flung protection Italy, earthdid a peopleacquire a moreillustrious capital, and with it an equally heavy responsibility before the entire civilized world.7

6. Legge n. 2359, "Espropriazioneper causa di utilita pubblica."For the 7. Open letter to Andrea Busiri Vici, presidentof the Accademiadi San full text, see Espropriazioniper pubblica utilita (Rome, I966), Collezione Luca, published in AllgemeineZeitung, zi March i886; reprintedin Gre- legislativa,Stamperia nazionale, 71, pp. 9-30. gorovius, Kleine Schriften (Leipzig, I888), II, 306-3I3. 8 Internalpolitics colored the planningof Rome as well. To State programs such as a palace of justice, an academy of the extent that Rome was thought by outsidersto be an inter- sciences, a polyclinic, and militaryinstallations such as bar- national city, and to the extent that it had figuredwithin as racks, a hospital, and a parade ground. In addition, the city the central focus of the struggle for national unity during was compelled to put in the plan the demolition of the the Risorgimento,the new capital was a symbolic and emo- Ghetto and its redevelopment,the completion of the main tional inevitability.But it was not embracedby the national east-west artery of Via Nazionale beyond Piazza Venezia governmentwith the same conviction that tied Paris to the (Corso Vittorio Emanuele), and suburbanbridges over the Second Empire or Vienna to Hapsburg rule. The northern Tiber. Savoy dynasty adopted Rome no more readily than it had From the outset the State'spresence critically affected the Florenceas the temporarycapital of the new Kingdomfrom city-form. Seats of the major government institutions, 1865 to 1871. Victor Emmanuel II, the first King of Italy, whether new structures or older reused ones, served as spent little time in Rome after the transferof the court; he strong foci which generatedand conditioned urban activity. preferredthe Alps and the countryside of Pisa. Rome was Three of the most importantof these were the Quirinalpal- not his city the way Paris was Napoleon's or Vienna was ace, taken over as the official royal residence; Palazzo Ma- Franz Joseph's. dama nearPiazza Navona, renovatedin 1871 by the engineer Parliamentitself was in no mood to spend much money LuigiGabet as the new Senatebuilding; and PalazzoMonte- on Rome. Italy had many importanthistorical centers. The citorio, the papal lawcourts since I694, now housing the delegates from north and south displayed open antipathy national Parliament.These and others helped to bringabout toward the notion of providing for the disproportionate new residential and traffic patterns. The new Ministry of glorification of this much-sung city; they looked with dis- Finance on Via XX Settembre(Michelangelo's Strada Pia), favor on the expenditureof the resourcesof their own con- a vast pile between Porta Pia, where Royalist troops broke stituenciesfor the renovationof Rome. Requests by the city through the walls on zo September1870, and the Quirinal for State assistancewent unheeded for a number of years- palace, became the nucleus of a new quarterpatronized by with grave consequences. That Rome had been elevated to the populous ministerialbureaucracy.10 be the first city of the Kingdom was reward enough, the Where these installations were placed was often beyond State argued.As Ministerof FinanceMarco Minghetti put it municipal control. A government commission established in 1875, "The title of capital is more a cause for lucre than on 3 February1871 had been chargedwith the orderlytrans- expense."8The first official version of the masterplan, rati- fer of the capital from Florence. Armed with a law which fied by the city in September1873 (Fig. z), was shelved for gave the State power to appropriateany key building in the nine years without receiving final legal status precisely be- city for its own immediate use, a considerableextension of cause of the financialuncertainty about its futureexecution. the ExpropriationBill of 1865, the commission made all ar- At first all the city could extract from the State was a rangements for the location of government agencies. The Minghetti promise to suspend the State building tax for a Ministry of Public Works controlled the erection of new period of fifteen years for all new construction in one-third government buildings; wishes of its clients were frequently of the Esquilinebeing developed by the city. Talk of an an- at odds with city intentions. The siting of the Ministry of nual Statesubsidy got nowhere until VictorEmmanuel's suc- War on the Quirinal is a specificcase in point. Pursuingthe cessor, Humbert I, showed open support for his capital by vision of Quintino Sella, the powerful Minister of Finance urging the government to act. In his opening speech to in the governmentof Giovanni Lanza, for a grand avenue of Parliamenton 17 Februaryi880, the popular King declared ministriesfrom Porta Pia to the Quirinal palace to serve as that the Statewas obliged to help finance"the indispensable the spinal cord of the new capital, a group of formermonas- works for the health and decorum of Rome, which created tic structureswas consolidated for the war bureaucracyjust the unity and grandeurof the firstItaly, and should not have south of Sella's own enormous ministry,on the same side of to play host to the new Italy only through memoriesof past Via XX Settembre. The decision was taken in the plain fortunes."9The final settlement,when it came, did more to knowledge that it conflicted with the early plans of the city establish the principle of State assistancethan to relieve the for this area. They envisaged a road parallel to Via Nazio- financial anxiety of such a mammoth project. The city was assuredfifty million lire over a period of twenty years, but of this, thirty million were to go toward the cost of mandated io. For a critical study of this building and the role of Quintino Sella in the planningof Rome, see E. Schroeter,"Rome's First National StateArchi- tecture in Terms of Capitalist Ideology and Politics," in a forthcoming and architecturein the service 8. Cited by Bianchi in Capitolium, x (I934), 34. volume being publishedby MIT Presson art 9. Ibid., p. 36. of politics. '%'V-m --V If*4~~~ ,GM~~~~~~~~; a-ni~~~a~iap;rre~~~i;

9 /i" a; ( t? X E i

Fig. z. The Master Plan of 1873. QUIRINALPALACE L// /

a VIMINAL& QUIRINALHILLS PLAN OF 1873 AND REVISED PLAN OF 1881 AVENUESOF PLANOF 1873 ==. PIOPOStD COMPROMISESCHEME OF 13 FEB. 1881 '////, PROPOSt DELETIONOF 1873 AVENUESIN 1881 SCHEME

I _AZ 1 ILJLJLLVia XX Settembre

11 Mfil^V-[ ,_, L.A,L I r7/

VIMINAL& QUIRINALHILLS t PLH-tStNT-DAY DISPOSITION

Fig. 3. (a) The area of the Viminal Hill as laid out in the Plan of 1873, revised in accordance with the agreement between the State and the city signed on 13 February i88i, and made legal through a royal decree issued on i6 June I881. (b) The same area today, with the Ministry of the Interior (Palazzo del Viminale) built in 1920 after designs by Manfredo Manfredi. II nale, whose intended line is now indicated by the blind Via The only concession made to industry was Testaccio. Piacenzainterrupted north of Via delle Quattro Fontane by Around this artificial hill an industrial quarter was first the bulk of the Ministry of War (Fig. 3a/b). postulated by the Camporesi Commission in November The debate also involved the foundation of a new uni- 1870, and it remained a constant idea in all subsequent re- versity complex nearby. With the prompting of Sella, mo- visions of the masterplan until the final versionof 1883. The mentarilyat the head of the Ministry of Public Instruction, site had obvious advantages, it was argued. The Tiber was the site chosen by the State was where the Ministry of the navigable up to this point and no further. This meant that Interiornow sits, that is, the polygonal piece of land bound- rivertransport southward could assist the rail transportpro- ed by Via Nazionale, Via dei Serpenti,Via Panisperna/Santa vided for by the Civitavecchialine that passed just outside Maria Maggiore, and Via Depretis.An initial grandiloquent the walls. And the extraurban location of the docks and project by Gabet callously disruptedthe street grid adopted warehouseswould exempt them from the onus of consump- for the area in the Plan of I873. The main building of the tion duties, a considerable encouragementto industry. But universitywas to sit precisely at the point where Via Vimi- all this may have been, at least in part, rationalization for nale, starting at the train station, met the transverse Via the official policy of excluding a troublesome proletariat Milano. The university complex further interrupted two from within the legal bounds of the capital, a policy that other transverse streets north of Via Milano, namely, Via sought to justify itself initially through the papal building Genova and Via Venezia. Subsequent reductions of the code of 1864, the "Regolamentoedilizio e di pubblico ornato Gabet scheme did not solve the crisis between city and State. per la citta di Roma." According to the code, "the practice During the negotiations, the Ministry of Public Instruction of those arts which becauseof foul smell and dirt become in- erected a large greenhouse at the junctureof Via Viminale convenient and perniciousto the neighborhoodis permitted and Via Milano to set its claim on the contestedground. The only in quartersof low density, away from the urbancenter." controversyraged until late i880 when Guido Bacelli, a city In fact, once invented, Testaccio became the receptacle councilmanwho had been elevatedto the post of Ministerof for unattractiveurban functions. When the main slaughter- Public Instruction, brought the two parties together on a house of the city, long outside Portadel Popolo, stood in the compromiseplan, ratifiedon 13 FebruaryI88I, that retained way of the intendedresidential nucleus west of Via Flaminia, the greenhouse but also allowed Via Milano to be carried it was moved to Testaccio as a matterof course. The central over eastward until Via Panisperna(Fig. 3a).11 market called for by the State Assistance Bill of i88i was In one other crucial respect the State influencedthe plan- likewise assigned there. Again, when the Ghetto was finally ning of Rome. In part to continue the favored industrializa- demolished and redevelopedfor the upper-middleclass, the tion of the north and in part to avoid the potentially trouble- first thought was to move displaced Jewish businesses to some presence of masses of workers in the new capital, the Testaccio. The quarterwas physically isolated from the rest State discouraged both industry and trade here. Histori- of the city-formnot only becauseof its extraurbansite at the cally, Rome had always been a consumercity; its only major southwest corner of the walls, but also because the two ma- exportable product had been political power. Papal Rome jor arteriesthat were to lead in and out of it, the Lungotevere prior to 1870 had no industryto speak of, with the exception and a road running between the two spurs of the Aventine of the tobacco manufactory (Tabacchi) at Trastevere. The in the direction of the Colosseum (the present Viale Aven- rudimentaryrailroad system initiated in the I85os reached tino), clearly bypassedthe center. The exclusively industrial no further than Civitavecchia and Frascati. The national destination of the quarteralso managedto isolate the work- government promptly strapped Rome to the rest of the ing proletariatfrom the rest of the population, and this de- Kingdom through a substantial rail network, but this im- spite disavowals of social segregation such as that in the proved patternof transportationwas not meant to serveas a report of the Committee of Four: "Quartersdestined exclu- new economic infrastructure. Rome was to remain the sively for the less-well-to-do are not admissible; we recom- center of governmentalbureaucracy. Tourism and building mend instead that [these people] be distributed in suitable were to be its only prime industries.Consequently the city- lodgings incorporatedwithin structureswhere those better form could exist free of the pressuresthat the heavy concen- favored by fortune are to reside."13 tration of an industrialclass produced in capitals like Paris and London.12 The city's own inadequacies in the planning process were II. Capitolium, ix (I933), 503-5II. transparent.To begin with, fiscal thinking was never real- iz. See A. Caracciolo, "Rome in the Past HundredYears: UrbanExpan- sion without Industrialization,"Journal of Contemporary History, In (I969), 27-4I. I3. Roma, citta e piani, p. 79. 12 istic. The cost of rebuildingRome was open-ended; munici- cording to its own calculation 44 million lire out of the s50- pal revenues, finite and paltry. Much of the annual budget million loan from the Banca Nazionale was eventuallypaid was earmarkedfor public works. In I872, for example, the out in State taxes.15 sum of I i million lire was allocated for this purpose out of a But beyond its steady financialbind, the city sufferedfrom total outlay of 20.5 million for municipal expenditures. internal maladministrationand a surfeit of extramunicipal Next year the allocation went up to a phenomenal 32.5 bureaucracy.The top leadershipof the city, calledthe Giunta million, the start of a recurrenttrend of overspendingthat and consisting of the mayor and a number of clerks (asses- would lead to the city's near bankruptcyby i888. But even sori), changed frequently. No fewer than fifteen upsets or with such extravagant budgeting, the scale of the project shuffles of the Giunta took place between 1870 and I88z; made imperativethe solicitation of massive loans. In 1871 a the average tenure of the Giunta was less than one year. long-termloan for I50 million lire had been negotiated with Planning policy being often the cause for resignations or the Banca Nazionale, and by I874 the initial installmentof votes of no confidence, the administrativeturnover meant 30 million had already been spent.14 regularreversals on the question of the master plan and the One problem was habitual miscalculationof costs, espe- program of public works. Each Giunta could therefore cially estimates of expropriation. The process itself was hardly muster enough momentum to cope with State recal- slow; appeal and counterappeal were built into the law. citrance and fight self-serving pressures from the private Subsequentto the signing of the decree of eminent domain, sector. Besides, Giunta members and councilmen were the city was obligated to make a reasonable offer for each caught on occasion in a conflict of interest.They would buy piece of propertyit intendedto expropriate,and to post the land and speculate as private citizens, while participatingin sum in question with the Cassa dei Depositi e Prestiti.With the drafting of laws for the disposition of such land. If ac- or without a specificchallenge from the propertyowner, the tivity of this kind, when it occurred, could not always be courts would then appoint, in accordancewith Article 36 of considered proved collusion, it nonetheless gave rise to the ExpropriationBill, one or more experts called periti to doubts in the public mind. assess the fairnessof the indemnityand make recommenda- The municipalstructure for the planning process was not tions to the court. The periti were drawn among architects, in itself unwieldy or excessive. The main responsibilityfor engineers, and agronomists. The city could appeal their the study and preparationof physical proposals lay with the assessment, and the long contest of bargainingwould thus Ufficiod'arte comunale, also known as Ufficiotecnico. Gen- be joined. The final outcome almost always favored the eral supervision was exercised on behalf of the Giunta by owner, keeping the city's public works budget permanently clerks of building and planning (assessoredell'edilizia and out of kilter. To cite one example: the Ufficio tecnico esti- assessore del piano regolatore). Unanimity in these circles mated that expropriation costs for the first stretch of Via was not, however, the rule. On the issue of Via Nazionale Nazionale (to Via Quirinale) would amount to 2.5 million and its terminal outlet, for example, the chief of the Ufficio lire; afterthe last court appeal was concluded, the figurehad tecnico disagreedwith his assessoreand the lower men in the soared to 6.5 million. office defied the chief by submittingvariant projects of their The city council resistedimposing special taxes to relieve own.16 the heavy burden of Rome's new status. It refused to make Proposals generated by the Ufficio tecnico, and alternate firm demands on speculators and developers. On the con- solutions from the outside, were reviewedby special elected trary, it sought repeatedly to have the State building tax committees of the council, and their reports were then de- waived to encourageprivate initiative. The governmentde- bated by the council at large. In mattersof keen controversy murred.At the same time, the city appealed to the State to such as Via Nazionale, the council also sought the advice of allow it to keep all of the monies raised through consump- professional organizations, specifically,the Circolo tecnico tion duties, its major source of revenue.Here too there was d'ingegneri, architetti, agronomi di Roma and the presti- considerablefriction. In 1871 the city was asked to turn in gious high council of fine arts, the Accademiadi San Luca. three million of the total sum to the State; the city obeyed But this municipalstructure of decision making linked up under protest, threateningat one moment to stop all public with other jurisdictions.The provinceof Rome, with offices works needed for the functioning of the new capital. Ac- on Piazza SS. Apostoli, had ultimate control over the pro-

I5. Arbib, Sommario, p. ioI. dis- I4. For this and much other useful informationregarding the city history i6. See Atti, I (1875), 29z-925, for these competing designs and their of modernRome, see E. Arbib,Sommario degli atti del Consiglio comunale cussion by the council. The internal strife of the Fifth Department,Con- di Roma ... (Rome/Florence,I895), a convenient narrativeculled by an structionand PublicWorks, is specificallydecried by councilmanE. Ruspoli insiderfrom city council acts of twenty-fiveyears. on p. 765. 13 cedure of expropriation.In addition, all planning proposals control of 124 buildings and over IIo,ooo acres of land, of that affected extramuralhighways, sewage, and matters of which some I7,000 were in the immediate district of Rome sanitation in general came under its purview. It had its own and the remainderin the Roman countryside. Ufficio tecnico that produced designs, and a health council These were disposed of at low rates, throughdirect sale or (Consiglio provinciale di sanita). In matters relating to the long leasing. The proceeds were intended by law to be as- Tiber, the disposition of railroadstations, and of course the signed for the care of the inmates of suppressedorders and accommodation of its agencies, the State held its own coun- the continuation of legitimate charitable programs. But sel. Where these State interests were concerned, the civil State and city needs could claim special attention. In fact, corps of engineers (Ufficio del Genio civile) participatedin fifty-fourof the disposable buildings had been relinquished planning and design decisions. The army corps of engineers to the State for its uses, either through the 1871 bill for the (Genio militare)exercised responsibility on issues pertaining transferof the capital or the bill for the abolition of the asse to defense: for example, the ring of forts erected after 1870 ecclesiastico. Another thirty-threehad been ceded or sold to aroundthe city, the placementand constructionof barracks, the city. With so much negotiable property in its care, the and the like. The Ministry of Commerce ruled on bridges Giunta liquidatrice assumed a leading role in the planning over the Tiber. Decisions bearingon relics of antiquitywith of Rome. The ready availability and extremely low cost of national standinghad to be clearedwith the Soprintendenza this property became a major consideration in the siting of degli scavi, a departmentof the Ministry of Public Instruc- State and city institutions. The choice of the universitysite tion. Finally, the Ministry of Public Works through its re- on the Viminal was made possible by the presence there of view board, the National Council of Public Works already considerableChurch property that could easily be assumed referred to, retained general supervision for all proposals by the State. that evoked the principle of eminent domain, as well as all The Church'slegal say in planning matterswas minimal. major State undertakingswithin the city. The King's direct Since the Vatican refusedto recognizethe Kingdomof Italy, representation in planning matters came through a royal no agreementconcerning its rightscould be negotiated.Rec- supervisor of master plans, the Reggio commissario per i onciliation between Church and State had to await Musso- piani regolatori. In all this tangle of jurisdictions,it would lini's LateranAccords. In the meantime,protestations of the have requireda strong, stable city administrationto follow Church against specific planning decisions that affectedher up the fate of its projects,and it was preciselythat elementof interests were ignored or rejected.A good instance in point administrativecontinuity and clarity of purpose that Rome is the formal objection registeredon behalf of the Vatican did not have during the first two crucial decades as the na- against the Plan of 1873 during its public debate.18Churches tion's capital. as public spaces were not subject to the ExpropriationBill One last agency enteredthe fray on zz July I873. On that of I865, the argument read. No church, however small, day a commission entitled Giunta liquidatricedell'asse ec- could be demolished or altered in form or function without clesiastico went into operation as a special branch of the the beneplacido of the Vatican. In the past, the Vatican had Ministry of Justice.17Its function was to oversee the secu- agreed on rare occasions, when the public good demanded larization of Church property in and around Rome, the so- it, to have a small chapel razed. But the plan envisaged the called asse ecclesiastico, in accordance with the national destructionor significantalteration of fifteen churches:San law passed on 15 August 1867 and applied to Rome on I9 Pantaleo would disappear,Santa Pudenzianawould be sep- June I873. The law providedfor the suppressionof religious arated from its monastery, San Vitale converted to royal groups and the liquidation of their holdings in real estate. stables. This claim was set aside by the council without dis- Prior to the national takeover, vast areas of land and other cussion. propertywere owned by tax-exempt groups with professed The coordination of these various agencies and the exer- ecclesiastical affiliation. The Church and the nobility were cise of overall leadership in the planning of Roma capitale in fact the two major landowners in the territoryof Rome. belonged with the city authorities.Yet municipalexperience In anticipationof the arrivalof the secularizationlaw to the was severely limited. The only immediateprecedent for the new capital, religious orders had diligently adjusted the drawing up of a master plan was the blueprintthat accom- status of much of their patrimony to evade the law's pro- panied the papal building code of 1864, but this showed visions. Nonetheless the Giunta liquidatricefound itself in nothing more than partial interventionin the existing fabric

17. Fora detailedaccount of the activitiesof the Giuntaliquidatrice, see Monografiadella citta di Roma e della campagnaromana (Rome, I88I), ii, chap. 14 by C. Masotti. I8. See Atti, 111(1872-1873), 968-970. I4

Fig.4. (a,above) Scheme for Prati di Castelloby AntonioCipolla, 187z. (b,right) Scheme for Prati in Viviani'sfinal version for the MasterPlan of I873. to widen streets or straighten their course. The task of Through a string of deals with speculators in the next shaping the national capital was forbiddinglybroader. The twenty years, the formula changed but little. initial layout of new quarters involved some 750 acres of The alternative,to lay down roads and services first and land of complicated ownership for an estimated increaseof then sell buildinglots to individualsand firms,was slow and I50,000 in the urban population. The sense of urgencywas troublesome. It was tried, with disappointing progress, on keenly felt. This, coupled with municipal innocence or le- one section of the Esquiline. Small capital was reluctantto niency in dealing with corporate interests, produced con- move into skeletal neighborhoods so far from the tradi- tracts that favored private gain over the public good. The tional core. The city was obliged by law to sell the land to city, through contractual agreement, acceded to the devel- the highest bidder in public auction, a procedure that nat- opment of new quarters by private interests, and then, in urally worked to the benefit of corporate interests; selling return for the possession of the land for the streets and the land in large or multiple lots, in contrast to parcels suit- squares (guaranteedby the ExpropriationBill of i865), it able to the means of individual low- and middle-income undertook their paving and maintenance and the bringing buyers,was expeditious and thereforepreferred by the city. in of public services such as water, sewage, and transporta- The majorvictim of this systemwas the poor. Drawn Rome- tion. The pattern startedwith the reaffirmationin February ward in the thousands by the promise of jobs in the fevered 1871 of the 1867 agreement between the city council and rebuildingcampaign, or displacedfrom theirhomes by ame- Monsignor De Merode, already mentioned, regarding his liorative demolition in the old center, they soon discovered speculativeproject for the area of the Baths of Diocletian. that they were the last concern of the draftersof the master I5

plan. Private capital which undertook to develop the new advancedyears at the Breachof Porta Pia, had been trained quartersobviously preferredto build multistoryhousing for during the pontificate of Pius IX. They had worked on white-collar tenants who could afford high rent. Severalat- bridges, early rail links in the Papal States, and projects for tempts by the city to engage a privatedeveloper to build low- new streets and squares, some of which had been executed. cost housing on municipal land collapsed on the issues of Those among them who had been flagrantsupporters of the minimalroom size and fixed rent. Subsidizedhousing, when papal cause during the last bitter phase of the Risorgimento resorted to, was allotted such meager sums that its impact did not play a central part in the nationalist planning of the on the gigantic crisis was negligible.19 city. Andrea Busiri Vici is an obvious case. Active as papal architect and planner since about I850 and head of the fabbrica of S. Peter's both under Pius IX and Leo XIII, his Physical planning was largely in the hands of engineers. proposals for the planning of laic Rome (e.g., the ambitious They produced projects for developers, for the city, prov- project of I879 for Piazza Venezia) were shunned by the ince, and State, and as individualefforts of their own which municipal administration;his name is absent from all plan- they hoped to convince the city to adopt. Some were elected ning commissions.20By the same token, others who had to the council and servedon review commissionsfor various been partisans of unity now reaped the profit of their con- versions of the master plan. These men, most of them of viction.

I9. See Atti, 11(I87I-1872), Io6off. (Congregazionedi Carita); nl,1130ff. zo. See A. Busiri,Proseguimento del progetto del nuovo ingressoalla Via (Societadi costruzione di case e quartieri),etc. Nazionale di Roma sulla Piazza di Venezia . . . (Rome, I879). i6 The most influential designer of the capital was Ales- cussion rarely goes beyond declaratory cant: "A straight sandro Viviani (I825-I9o5).21 A Roman engineer who had long avenue is without doubt to be preferredfrom the point headed the constructionof the papal railwaysystem until he of view of aesthetics to [a] tortuous solution .....24 fell into disfavorfor his political beliefs and was forced to go A measure of the sophistication of the Roman planners into private practice, Viviani was appointed the first di- can be gained from the contents of their libraries.The cata- rector of the Ufficio technico in 1871 and retainedthat post logue for the 1875 sale of one such library, Antonio Ci- until his death. His planning office in city hall dominated polla's, shows that the main sources of inspiration were the shaping of the new Rome for three decades. In his last classical antiquityand contemporaryFrance. Listed, among year he was supervisingthe buildingof the tunnel under the others, are books on Pompeii and the Baths of Titus and a Quirinal.Rafaelle Canevariand Angelo Vescovali, two pro- generous selection of French titles including books by tagonists in the planning of the urban stretch of the Tiber, Blondel, Cesar Daly, Viollet-le-Duc, Auguste Choisy, the were hydraulicengineers. So was AlessandroBetocchi, who complete run of Revue generaled'architecture, the Nouveau had also authored a project for the papal regime related to plan de Paris et son enceinte of i866, publications dealing the opening of a direct artery between Piazza Venezia and with the 1867 Universal Exposition in Paris, and several the Colosseum-an early predecessor of the Fascist Via manualsof architecture.25A glance at Cipolla's 1872 project dell'Impero (now Via dei Fori Imperiali).22 for Prati di Castello north of the Borgo, with its strugglefor In theory these men had intimateknowledge of the physi- the accommodation of the rond-point, reveals his Parisian cal conditions of the city. They wrote informedbooks about leanings (Fig. 4a). the flooding of the Tiber, the topography of the hills, the But the planners of Roma capitale were most at home structure of Roman soil. Yet for all this their planning with local precedent, specifically the scheme of Sixtus V projects for the expansion of Rome ignore or minimize the (I585-I590) and the more recent flurry of projects during contours of the land. They talk of a relief map, but never the Napoleonic interlude, of which only Piazza del Popolo work with one. Plans of perfect geometry are drawn, as had been carried through. From the great Sistine program, monuments though the land were as free of incident as the flat stretchof the plannersclung to the idea of joining central too was paperthey use. In the section drawingsfor main new arteries with axial stretchesof roadway. The trident singled For- they indicate levels with childlike simplicity. Authors of out for emulation from general Renaissance practice. of the specific projects play down the effort and cost involved in mal parks and embankments for the urban length their design; opponents exaggeratethe consequencesof go- Tiber seem to be the rememberedheritage of the designs by and ing along with these schemes and propose alternativesof Giuseppe Valadier, Giulio and Giuseppe Camporesi, their own making. The debate is often unedifying. others chargedwith transformingpapal Rome into the glo- In fact, the view of the plannersof Roma capitale strikes rious second capital of Bonaparte'sempire.26 To this source his- one as strictly parochial. In the numerous reports that deal we might also attribute clearance projects relating to for a with the first plan of 1873, one encounters only the most toric buildings-the demolition of the Borgo spina cursoryreference to the major planning events elsewherein direct,monumental approach to St. Peter's,the enlargement and the Europe. One man is praised for being "au courant with the of Piazza di Trevi, the liberation of the Colosseum recurrenttalk both great building operations being undertaken in other large Palatine-even though some of this was European cities."23 But his prescriptions for Rome are before and after the French occupation. turned down. Here and there mention is made of "giardini The iconography of the new regime and contemporary of this The inglesi," Parisianboulevards, the tunnel under the Danube exigencies forced some revision planning legacy. or Rome. For linking Buda with Pest. But no commission undertakes a Rome of 1870 was not Napoleon's Sixtus's serious study of contemporaryplanning situations as a pre- example, the provision in the plan of the Camporesi Com- lude to its own deliberations. There is no evidence of ex- mission (Fig. 5) for two vast formal parks is reminiscentof tensive travel abroad. The theoretical arguments are con- fined to spare themes, such as the relative superiorityof the A. Sulla della ViaNazionale... straight street over the crooked one, and even then the dis- 24. Marchesi, prosecuzione (Rome, I88z), p. 15, in referenceto the western extension of Via Nazionale (the present Corso Vittorio Emanuele). Z5. I am indebtedto the familyof Giorgio Lucianifor allowing me to look in its Luciani's 21. There is no major study of Viviani and his work. through Cipolla papers possession. Signora great-grand- had servedas executorof zz. See Archivio di Stato di Roma, Collezione di disegni e mappe, I, father,the designerDomenico D'Amico, Cipolla's will. Cartella 8z, no. 355; and in, no. vi.z. The drawings are signed "Prof. Roma e la n.d. AlessandroBettocchi Ing. Pontificio." z6. See A. La Padula, regionenell'epoca napoleonica (n.p., 23. In the reportof the Committeeof Four; see Roma, citta e piani, p. 78. [I969]). I7

t'iagrammaticMaster Plan of the Camporesi Commission 10 November 1870 legend - roposednew u adm aveues r_ roposed tunnmng

,mm Main ax at the time of Sixtu V

00 Boulevard along the wall 5[ Proposedhoushg (schematicpattm) Set of proposedparka

Fig.5. A schematicreconstruction of theplan prepared by theCamporesi Commission, based on its reportof io NovemberI870. the Napoleonic plan for Rome, but their placement ac- So too with the great Sistine pattern which had strapped knowledges the changing environmentalreality. The earlier the eastern half of the city, and over which now the new scheme had chosen for these parks the area beyond Piazza quarterswere to be built. In terms of density, there had not del Popolo, the traditionalentrance to the city now empha- been much change in these parts between I590 and 1870. sized by the Paris-Rome axis, and the archaeological zone The Camporesi Commission respondedto this grand skele- south of the Forum that would underline the Napoleonic ton; it saw planning through the eyes of Sixtus and Dome- imagery of imperial revival. The Commission sought to ac- nico Fontana-a matter of civilizing the countryside by commodate the urban consequences of the railroad station means of single-minded arteries between pairs of monu- in the northeast, the modern entrance to the city, and the mental nodes. But the Breach of Porta Pia had created new imminent expansion on the eastern hills and the right bank foci to anchor the stretch of these arteries. Santa Maria by locating its own parks "in the proximity of Porta Mag- Maggiore and the adjacent Sistine villa were no longer the giore" and on the Gianicolo. And if the "grand porticoes" ultimate umbilicus. This central function had now been the Commission prescribedfor the new piazze of the Quiri- preemptedby the intended royal seat on the Quirinal. That nal palace, the railroad station, and the exedra of the Baths and the presence of the railroad station determined the of Diocletian, "as well as some of the new avenues which radial emanation of main avenues whose web could only will lead from the station into the center of Rome," harked partially be adjusted to the Sistine antecedent (Fig. 5). Of back to the neo-imperialsolutions of Napoleonic planning, the three avenues that took off from the station, perhaps they paid architecturalhomage equally to the new ruling forming a trident, only one led for certain to a Sistine land- dynasty of the House of Savoy by seeking to recreate the mark-the obelisk of Piazza dell'Esquilinothat marked the colonnaded streets and the uniformly lined, non-Roman space in front of the tribune of Santa Maria Maggiore. To squares of Turin. this same obelisk was directedthe easternmostof the trident i8 of streetsthat issued from the porticoed piazza of the Quiri- mento) and enhancement(abbellimento) of Rome," the ex- nal palace. The westernmostprong correspondedto Via dei perts were clearly encouraged to think of their job in more Serpenti, now extended in a straight line until the Colos- than sensible,practical, or social terms.Even Viviani, whose seum (the present Via degli Annibaldi). The middle prong position as head of the Ufficiotecnico entailed the responsi- led to the Lateranalong Via in Merulana traced by Sixtus's ble appraisalfor the council of all aspects of proposed proj- predecessor, Gregory XIII (I57z-I585). This last avenue ects, was often carried away by the look of things. It is was conducted northwardbeyond the Quirinal in the Com- clear, for example, that his reworking of the Cipolla plan mission'splan, along Via dei Due Macelli and Via del Babui- for Prati(Fig. 4b), notably the largerectangular piazza set on no, in an uninterruptedline all the way from the obelisk of end with diagonal streets leading out of the corners, was Piazza del Popolo to that set up by Sixtus in front of the conditioned in the main by the desire to repeat,more or less, north transept of S. Giovanni in Laterano. Thereby the his own scheme for the Esquilineat the other end of the city, backbone of Sixtus's scheme, Strada Felice, which had where the space of the main planted square,Piazza Vittorio stretched breathtakinglyfrom Piazza del Popolo to Santa Emanuele, similarly dilated into diagonal corner avenues Croce in Gerusalemme,was now being moved west, to pass (Fig. z). This is one indication that Viviani sought to disci- through (or rather, under) the new King's palace. pline the spreading city into a visual pattern of echoing When the easternhills were given their final form by Vivi- themes and correspondences,at least in two dimensions. ani in I873, the Commission'stwo tridentsdisappeared; but For the politicians whose task it was to approve the pro- the planning of the Esquiline around a large rectangular visions of the masterplan and securethe funds needed to see square, Piazza Vittorio Emanuele, confirmed the displace- them through, the situation was different.Setting aside the ment of the Sistinetracery (Fig. z). A new tridentthat led out extreme view that legal master plans crushed the rights of of the short south side of this piazza correspondedto the private property, two distinct philosophies can be detected. older scheme only in its middle prong, Via Conte Verde/Via The more expedient view held that the plan was an ideal di Santa Croce in Gerusalemme,which lay along the path of vision. It included everythingthe city might wish to accom- Strada Felice. The other two prongs, if extended until the plish for its physical well-being, but which did not all need walls, would touch them at Porta S. Giovanni and Porta to be done. There were priorities.The ArmelliniCommittee Maggiore, two termini that had no significance whatever which reviewed Viviani's 1873 version of the plan estab- for Sixtus's scheme. The central position of Santa Maria lished three categories of varying urgency in evaluating its Maggiore from which the great avenues had radiated in provisions. The third category it considered luxury; the syderis formam was now being usurped by the new Piazza second, useful features whose execution could be post- Vittorio Emanuele,and the logic of its centralitywas secular poned. Only the first category was pressing and had to be and abstracted.And with the naming of the piazza after the executed promptly.27 firstKing of Italy and its radialavenues after Savoy princes- In rejectingthis method of classification,the progressive Emanuele Filiberto, Principe Eugenio-the laic order of mayor Luigi Piancianiforcefully expressed the other view- Roma capitale was made to triumph totally over the papal that a master plan was not the sum total of independent urbanismof the centuries since the Renaissance. features that might or might not be realized, but a general, coherent program carefully thought out as a binding blueprint for the city. There could be only two kinds of urban It remains to consider, in conclusion, what the concept of projects:those that must be includedin the masterplan, and the Roman piano regolatore meant to its makers. There is those that the council did not consider essential enough to little doubt that the engineers and architects trying their merit the status of eminent domain. For the plan, once hand at it thought of the plan primarilyas a golden chance passed, must be inviolable; all its provisions must command for grand design. The straight avenues, tridents, rond- equal urgency.28 points, and residentialgrids were born of aesthetic impulse. The council showed its indecision between these two pre- The conviction reigned that the design of cities was an ex- vailing views by adopting the plan, with some changes, and tension of architecture,which was the first among equals in at the same time appending a rider to the effect that "the the family of belle arti. Budgets, traffic rationale, the sur- mounting of topographical and social difficulties-these supplied ammunition for the defense of a beautiful design 27. Sul Piano di Roma: Relazionedella commissioneesamina- after the fact ratherthan being primarydeterminants of that Regolatore trice al Consiglio comunale (Rome, 1873), pp. 4-6 and 38-44. design. Beginningwith the CamporesiCommission, whose z8. Pianciani, Discorso sul Piano Regolatore pronunziato al Consiglio precise mandate was "to study the expansion (ingrandi- comunale il 6 ottobre 1873 (Rome, I873). i9 council reserved the right to resolve annually, or whenever slowly and almost unwittingly,one obtains in time the desiredurban called upon to do so by the Giunta, whether, and which of, systematization.31 the projects included in the plan should be executed . . ."29 In practice, the Plan of 1883 as finally approved turned (my emphasis). In the end this compromising stance carried out to be less constricting than its enemies feared. The docu- the day. As Viviani pointed out, even without specific cate- ment determined, to a large degree, what happened to the gories the instrument of setting priorities was in the council's city-form for the next twenty-five years, until the passage of hand. The legal term for the validity of a master plan, ac- the Plan of I909. But by no means altogether. The granting cording to the Expropriation Bill of 1865, was twenty-five of concessions to private industry for entire quarters con- years: the city could choose to take its time with details of tinued: the quarters of San Cosimato and Ludovisi materi- the plan, or let time run out on them and thus avoid having alized in spite of the plan, the latter at the expense of the to see them through.30 In the meantime, the plan guaranteed beloved Villa Ludovisi. Speculators sought quicker profits a blanket approval for all desirable expropriation and a by bolting the legal restraints of the plan and spilling reck- stated long-term policy that relieved property owners from lessly outside the walls where land was cheap. And there the anxiety of not knowing where they stood. The Commit- were remarkable developments within. The monument to tee of Four summed up in 1871: Victor Emmanuel swallowed an entire neighborhood in the A masterplan is far from being a plan for immediateexecution. It heart of the city and reshaped Piazza Venezia and its vicinity that which should come to be in the near or more distant represents in ways unpredicted by the plan. future,as decided solely by the municipalauthorities. It is therefore All this, too, is a separate piece of urban history that must principallya guide and a norm whereby the administrationmight be told in the fullness of the evidence. But before the forestallany obstructionof, impedimentto, or difficultyfor the exe- post cutionof its provisions,in due time, by new (unauthorized)construc- mortem, before critical judgment of the plan from our pres- tion or any other way whatever;and also the means wherebyevery ent vantage point and the various political perspectives that new work is coordinatedwith a view toward the whole and in line underlie our evaluation of the Liberal State, we must estab- with the concepts studied in advance, so that following this road, lish as truthfully as we can the context in which the plan was born. That has been the sole object of this historical exordium. 29. See Capitolium, ix (I933), 58. 30. Roma, citta e piani, p. 86. 31. Roma, citta e piani, p. 80.

CHRONOLOGICAL OUTLINE

30 September 1870 Camporesi Commission created by the State-ap- and one to review total master plans (the so- pointedGiunta for Rome. Members:P. Campo- called Committee of Four consisting of A. resi, president,S. Bianchi,N. Carnevali,A. Ci- Betocchi,R. Canevari,F. Azzurri[replaced by F. polla, F. Fontana,D. Jannetti,A. Mercandetti, Giordano],and E. Ruspoli). G. A. V. A. Vivi- Partini, Trevellini, Vespignani, 19 June 1871 Angelini Committee submits report. ani. In a few Fontana, and days Vespignani, I July 1871 Officialtransfer of capital from Florence. Trevelliniare replacedby L. Amadei, L. Gabet, 3 August 1871 Committeeof Four submits and P. Rosa, vice-president. report. I4 September1871 Council approves Esquiline layout by Viviani, io November of Commission issued 1870 Report Camporesi (see Cipolla, Camporesi. Fig. 5). z8 November 1871 Master plan of the Ufficio tecnico, an amalgam 28 February1871 Councilratifies agreement of April1867 between of the plans of the Camporesi Commission, FrancescoSaverio De Merodeand the city for the Camporesihimself, Mirotti, Paniconi, and the developmentof a residentialquarter on the Quir- Committeeof Four, is approvedby the council. inal. Agreementsigned on zz March. Streetsof the De Merode developmentnamed. Council ratifies contract with two 6 March 1871 Cipolla, Partini, and Gabet resign from the Genovese CamporesiCommission. companies (Compagnia commerciale italiana and Banca italiana di costruzione, soon merged 19 April I871 P. presents to the council his own Camporesi into Impresa dell'Esquilino) to build one-third versionof a master plan. of the Esquiline. 3 June 1871 Two separate committees appointed by the 13 January I87z Master plan posted for a fortnight'sscrutiny by council: one to review individualdevelopment the public, in accordancewith proceduresre- projects (G. Angelini, M. Massimo, A. Spada), quiredby the ExpropriationBill of i865. 20

25 February1872 Royal decree issued for the expropriationof I August 1873 Streetsof the Caelianand Esquilinenamed. propertieson the Esquiline. 3 September 1873 ArmelliniCommittee submits report. 29 February1872 Agreementbetween city and Societagenerale di 6 October 1873 Famous discourse of Pianciani on the master credito immobiliare for the development of plan deliveredto council. CastroPretorio. i8 October 1873 Final council approvalof the masterplan. zo March tecnico for Testaccio 1872 Ufficio project approved. i6 March 1874 Councilappoints committee to reviewaspects of 2z March 1872 Agreementbetween city and Guerrini/Rossifor the plan in progress(Viminal, Esquiline, Testac- the developmentof the Caelian. cio, Via Nazionale). 24 April 1872 Giunta creates the Commissione archeologica 22 June 1874 The committeeissues its report. as a committee. standing 22 April I875 Councilreverses itself on Via Nazionale; adopts 5 July 1872 Viviani project for Via Nazionale (leading to alternate scheme that brings the street into Trevi and PiazzaSciarra) approved. PiazzaVenezia. ii July 1872 FirminioPicard wins contractfor Testaccio. 1875-1880 The MasterPlan of 1873 lies in abeyancedue to of its financial 13 July 1872 Cipolla projectfor Prati rejectedby the council the uncertainty prospects. despite endorsementof Viviani. 27 September i880 Council ratifies initial agreementon State as- in the cost of the master 31 October 1872 Councilapproves plan for subsidizedhousing to sistance plan. Signedby be built by the Societa edificatriceitaliana on PrimeMinister Cairoli and Mayor Armellinion their land (ex-Villa Campanaand Orto Salvi- 14 November. ati). Agreementcollapses on 4 November. I3 February i88i Agreementratified between city and State on a new plan for the Viminal. I December1872 Viviani appointedoverall head of the Fifth De- i88i State AssistanceBill becomeslaw. partment(Edilita2 e lavoripubblici). 14 May zo i88i Councilinstructs Viviani to master 30 December1872 Castro Pretoriostreets named after militaryen- July bring plan up to in line with StateAssistance Bill. gagements that led to unity (Cernaia, Goito, date, Varese,etc.). z1 December I88I Committeeset up to review the revisedplan: F. S. A. 7 January1873 New buildingcode passed,replacing papal code Nobili-Vitelleschi, president, Bianchi, G. G. B. De A. De of 1864. Bracci, Bompiani, Rossi, Vecchis,M. Ottoboni, E. Renazzi. 5 May 1873 Agreementwith Societa di costruzionedi case e 1882 Committeeissues its quartierifor economy housingon Esquiline. 27 April report. 26 June 1882 Final vote of council on revisedplan. 9 July 1873 The masterplan, as revisedafter its publicview- 1882 of the rejected ing, is presentedto council. Committeeelected 9 August Appeals against provisions plan the council. to evaluate it: F. Armellini, president, 0. by Brauzzi(replaced by G. Montiroli),A. Cipolla, 31 August 1882 Plan approvedby the State. L. Gabet, and E. Ruspoli. 8 March 1883 Plan given final sanction by royal decree.