History

The project originated in 1927 with Renato Ricci, deputy and government commissioner for the marble industry of Carrara, who proposed erecting an enormous monolith in Rome carved from a single Apuan block. After a long search, a suitable block was located in the “Carbonera” quarry: it measured around 19 metres in length, two metres at the base, and weighed close to 300 tonnes. It was extracted in late 1928 and, on 26 January 1929, the descent toward the coast began through the traditional Carrara technique of “lizzatura”. Thirty-six pairs of oxen were used; the operation took roughly five months to reach the sea.

At the end of June 1929 the monolith was loaded onto a specially built pontoon, the “Apuano”, at La Spezia and shipped to Fiumicino. From there it was towed up the Tiber, taking advantage of the river’s spring floods, and reached Rome on 6 May 1932. The carving of the shaft and the installation on the Foro Mussolini axis were entrusted by Ricci to the architect Costantino Costantini. The obelisk was unveiled on 29 October 1932 to mark the tenth anniversary of the March on Rome. It was originally topped by a gilt cuspid of pure gold weighing 32 kilograms, intended to protect the marble apex; the cuspid was stripped on 25 July 1943, in the hours that followed the fall of Mussolini’s government.

After the Second World War, the surrounding complex was renamed Foro Italico, but the monolith and its inscription were left in place. The obelisk has been the subject of recurring public debate over the decades: critics see the surviving “MVSSOLINI DVX” lettering as state endorsement of the Fascist regime, while preservation authorities have generally treated the ensemble of the Foro Italico as a historical and architectural document of the period. Visitors will not find a confirmed removal or modification dated in the major reference sources; the inscription is the original 1932 one.