Photo Essay Politics

Ninety years after the March on Rome, fans and worshippers are still drawn to Mussolini’s hometown to commemorate his ideology

01 March 2013
Villa Carpena, the Mussolini family home, is not far from the house where the dictator was born. Today, it houses a collection of Fascist memorabilia and mementoes of Mussolini. In his former bedroom, his uniform, acquired by his descendants some years ago, lies on the bed. PHOTOGRAPHS BY SIMONE DONATI / TERRA PROJECT
At the entrance of the villa, an altar to Mussolini. Photographs, paintings and sculptures often capture the dictator striking his heroic poses, thrusting out his famous chin. {{name}}
Giulio Tam, known widely for his espousal of far-right ideas, celebrates Mass on Mussolini’s death anniversary. {{name}}
In the garden of Villa Carpena, a copy of the airplane “Cicogna” (Stork), in which German special forces rescued Mussolini in the famous Gran Sasso raid. After Mussolini was imprisoned by his own officers in a remote mountaintop resort, a group of German pilots surprised his guards and contrived a dramatic escape. {{name}}
Veterans of Mussolini’s army of Blackshirts await the beginning of the procession to San Cassiano. Fascists and their left-wing opponents continued to clash in Italy long after Italian partisans captured and shot Mussolini without trial in 1945. {{name}}
The mixed crowd at Predappio includes groups like the extreme right-wing Ragruppamento Nazi Combattenti e Reduci, which continues to hope for a return of the Fascist republic. {{name}}
At the Mussolini commemorations in Predappio, Fascist badges and homages to the squadristi, or Blackshirts, are ubiquitous. The sale of Fascist memorabilia is banned in Predappio, but continues unabated online. {{name}}
The marches are a form of political tourism which attract hundreds of people at a time from all over Italy, particularly the northern regions. Fascist banners, songs and emblems accompany these marches, along with Italian flags and banners. {{name}}
The black triangular hat, which formed part of the Blackshirt uniform, is a common sight in the Predappio processions. The emphasis on costume and ritual underscore the religious quality of the processions. {{name}}
Processions, like this commemoration of the March on Rome last year, are taken out from St Anthony’s church in the centre of Predappio to San Cassiano cemetery, the site of Mussolini’s mausoleum. {{name}}
The cross brought from the Church of St Anthony in central Predappio is brought to San Cassiano, where supporters of Giulio Tam hoist it to the wall. {{name}}
Outside the San Cassiano cemetery, a group of Fascist sympathisers raise their hands in a Fascist salute. Fascist propaganda was outlawed in Italy by post-war governments, but many Italians retain a view of Mussolini’s regime as relatively benign. {{name}}
A father and son in Predappio make the Fascist salute on the anniversary of Mussolini’s death. As World War II passes out of living memory, opportunities for younger people to re-assemble or assess Mussolini’s legacy appear to diminish steadily. {{name}}
A nostalgic with a picture of Mussolini at a procession commemorating the March on Rome. {{name}}

THRICE A YEAR IN PREDAPPIO, a small town in Italy’s north-eastern region of Emilia Romagna, tourism receives a sharp boost. Predappio is the birthplace of Benito Mussolini, Italy’s former Fascist dictator. It becomes a site of pilgrimage for modern-day sympathisers and nostalgists on Mussolini’s birth and death anniversaries, as well as during the week in October that marks the anniversary of his March on Rome, the 1922 gathering of squadristi, or Blackshirts, which brought the Fascists to power. The march marked the beginning of Mussolini’s 23-year reign as dictator of Italy, during which he assumed the title by which political sympathisers still refer to him: ‘Il Duce’, derived from the classical title of Dux, Latin for ‘leader’.

Compared to neighbouring Germany, where the causes and consequences of World War II effected decades of public soul-searching about the country’s period of Nazism, Italy appears to have repressed its memories of fascism to some degree. In spite of decades of left-wing activism, which include rulings outlawing Fascist propaganda, reminders of its political heyday in Italy are common in many parts of the country—from calendars of Mussolini photographs to the oft-repeated notion that he was not as bad as Hitler. Italy’s long-serving former prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, is fond of expressing his approval of Mussolini, saying that he “did well” in some ways; in 2011, he remarked that, on reading Mussolini’s letters, he felt there was a certain kinship between them.

On the thrice-yearly pilgrimages, supporters come to Predappio from all over Italy, wearing black, their shirts often adorned with Fascist badges. As depicted in these photographs taken in April and October 2012, they take out processions from the town centre to the cemetery of San Cassiano, the site of Mussolini’s tomb, crying Fascist slogans and singing songs from the movement’s glory days in the 1920s and 1930s. Italian flags and bouquets with flowers of red, white and green (Italy’s colours) go hand in hand with manganelli, the truncheons that recall the weapons of the original Blackshirts. Predappio’s town council, led by a succession of centre-left mayors in recent years, banned the sale of Fascist memorabilia in 2009, but trade in these items continues online.

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Simone Donati is a documentary photographer based in Florence. In the past few years, his work has focused on the political and social situation in Italy.

Keywords: fascist Benito Mussolini Predappio March on Rome Society of St Pius X squadristi
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