Foro Italico is a sports complex in Rome, Italy, on the slopes of Monte Mario. It was built between 1928 and 1938 as the Foro Mussolini under the design of Enrico Del Debbio and, later, Luigi Moretti. Inspired by the Roman forums of the imperial age, its design is lauded as a preeminent example of Italian fascist architecture instituted by Mussolini. The purpose of the prestigious project was to get the Olympic Games of 1940 to be organised by fascist Italy and held in Rome.
Stadio Olimpico and Stadio dei Marmi (foreground)
A phase of the transport of the Foro Italico monolith to the boarding place. The monolith was towed to Fiumicino on a pontoon, then it went up along the Tiber towed on the shore by oxen. It was the last major river transport in Rome.
The Stadio dei Marmi surrounded by statues representing athletes.
The main tennis court: Stadio Centrale
Luigi Walter Moretti was an Italian architect. Active especially in Italy from the 1930s, he designed buildings such as the Watergate Complex in Washington DC, The Academy of Fencing, and Il Girasole house, both in Rome. He was the founder of the Institute for Operations Research and Applied Mathematics Urbanism, where he developed his research on the history of architecture, and on the application of algorithmic methods to architectural design. He is recognized as the inventor of parametric architecture.
Luigi at his architect's desk in early 1973
Gioventù Italiana del Littorio (GIL, fascist youth organization) building in Trastevere, Rome, one of Moretti's notable early works
L'Accademia di scherma (Academy of Fencing) at Foro Mussolini, Rome (1936)
House "Il Girasole", Rome, 1948. Photo by Paolo Monti, 1951 (Paolo Monti Archive, BEIC)
