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  • RICERCA COLLABORATORI

dal 13 agosto, 2012
al 15 agosto, 2012
SI RICERCANO 30 COLLABORATORI PER L'EVENTO DI FERRAGOSTO AD OSTIA

PER INFO CONTATTARE GLI UFFICI DELLA PROLOCO ...

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Architectures


THE ARCHITECTURES


From 1916 to 1940 Ostia became a sort of laboratory for many architects who adapted their work to the different artistic trends of the time: from neoclassicism to Art Nouveau, from functionalism to modernism.
The greater exponents of Italian architecture in the first half of the twentieth century worked in Ostia: people such as Adalberto Libera, major exponent of Italian functionalism and leader of ‘group 7’ (a seven-architect association which supported an architecture based on the rational analysis of constructive functions), Luigi Moretti, Giulio Magni, Giovan Battista Milani.
These architects worked at fi rst on the bathing establishments: for example Roma by Milani, which represented a unique case in the world, Caio Duilio, today Il Capanno, by Moretti, in a modernist stile, and the Rex by Enrico Del Debbio in a modernist stile with a functionalist vein. The most significant examples of those architects’ creativity are certain houses where also Adalberto Libera worked: in Ostia he designed the plant of the Società Immobiliare Tirrena houses on the Caio Duilio seaside, building four houses where we can see symmetries and the functionalist trait.


THE BATHING ENSTABLISHMENT ROMA


The establishment, in neoclassical stile, was designed by architect Giovan Battista Milani, and was finished in 1927.
I it was an internationally renowned tourist and bathing attraction. Its structure drew certain architectonic traits of ancient Rome, to stress the link, as the Fascist regime liked, between the new and the ancient city.

Milani drew inspiration from Imperial Rome for the windows, the stairs and the apsidal room, while his benchmark was the classic aspect of the Caracalla’s thermal baths for the ticket offices and the entrances, where as the ceiling was lacunar, as the Massentius Basilica one.
For the Roma design, the architect also drew inspiration from some similar works built in France, such as the Jetéepromenade building in Nice, and the round terrace on the sea in Scheveningen, near The Hague in the Netherlands.
As regards the dome, Milani was inspired by the dome of the Byzantine church St. Sofi a in Istanbul and took cue from Gothic style for the flying buttress. The weight of the big copper dome (which has a perimeter of 42 meters) was supported by ribs and pillars representing the Winged Victory, the statue found in 1907 in Ostia Antica and which became the symbol of the city.
The pier started from the terraces around the first complex, and it finished with a round terrace, 62 meters long and 6 meters wide, based on 270 reinforced concrete piles driven into the sandy ground.
Sculptor Bucci, who also created the Winged Victory, carved the eight bronze angels on the terrace columns.
The decorative frescos of the interiors, by painter Calcagnodoro, resembled Art Nouveau style, and the Regina Pacis church was made out of reinforced concrete.
In 1943 the establishment Roma was bombed by the German Army to cancel the Allied air forces’ point of reference.


THE BATHING ENSTABLISHMENT CAIO DUILIO


The bathing establishment Caio Duilio, now called Il Capanno, was built around 1936, designed by architect Luigi Moretti, and it is one of the most interesting buildings of Ostia’s littoral.
The building has both typical modernist and rationalist characteristics. This bathing establishment, with its remarkable geometric rigour, was originally a rectangular building with a squared plan and was flanked by two others buildings.
It also had four fronting basement rooms with porthole windows, typical of marine rationalist architecture, which were visible from the seafront prospect too.
Its form alludes to boats, in particular to river boats. In 1941 this building partly changed because a second body overlooking the sea was built.


THE BATHING ENSTABLISHMENT REX


The bathing establishment Rex was designed by Enrico Del Debbio in a modernist style and it owes its name to the transatlantic liner which won the Nastro Azzurro ocean crossing.

Owing to its its dimensions and its architectonic conception, this bathing establishment could have competed with the neoclassic style bathing establishment Roma in the visual impact on the littoral.

After the II World War this building suffered serious damages but architect Gianfranco Bianchi restored it and it was initially called Mediterraneo and then Tibidabo.


THE GOVERNOR RESIDENCY


The governor residency, designed by architect Vincenzo Fasolo, was built in 1924, the same year as the Regina Pacis church.
The first seat, which Rome’s city council had built in 1914, made out of brick and wood, opposite the sea on the left-hand side of Piazza dei Ravennati, was replaced by this second one.
The present building has arc windows with frescos and a small tower.
Inside there are motifs in typical Dalmatian style made by Calzolari.


THE HOLIDAY HOME VITTORIO EMANUELE III


This holiday home, designed by Architect Marcello Piacentini between 1916 and 1920, was a sun treatment hospital for children who suffered from tubercolosis.
In 1932 king Victor Emmanuel III inaugurated this new seaside home holiday with its 130 metre-long façade giving onto the sea.
This building has sloping roofs, columns, walls and six entrances, typical characteristics of Etrurian temples.
Which represent the noble origins of Italian people.
After its restoration, part of this building became a library dedicated to the Italian Nobel writer Elsa Morante.


THE POST OFFICE


The post office, completed in 1934, is by architect Angiolo Mazzoni.

At the entrance of the building there is a group of crescent columns which recall Castel Fusano park’s pines, faced with angled bark-like bricks.
In the middle of the portico there is a mosaic on which there once was a bronze statue which was lost.


THE PIER


The first pier in Ostia was built in the same year as the bathing establishment Roma, made out of beech crosspieces.
Replaced by a new pier and renamed by the Fascist regime, the pier rested on concrete piles and travertine banisters, was 125 metres long and ended with a 20-metre wide terrace.
It had alternate travertine and Bagnoregio stone paving and in the middle of the pier were four mooring ramps.
In 1943 the German army, fearing military landings, broke the pier in two different points.
In 1956, after this partial demolition, a new pier was built with the old crosspieces.


CINELAND


The former STIMA, initially a cast iron and steel foundry, finished in 1939,produced ploughs and other machines.
In 1940, BREDA, the Milan steelworks-to which the government gave, abiding by Benito Mussolini’s autarkic project whose objective was to make a big furnace for steel production, the permit to use Ostia iron sand- took over this building.

Three years later the German army occupied and mined this building, but, nevertheless, it didn’t suffer damages.
During the post-war period engineer and new manager Merluzzi (who in 1960 became owner of the building and changed its name into Meccanica Romana), started once again mechanical production, which stopped in 1978.
From then onwards this building remained in a total state of neglect, and just occasionally was used as a movie location.
Then, on the verge of the third millennium, it became a cinema and entertainment centre.

Cineland has a congress room, where several cultural and sports events take place, 14 projection rooms, restaurants, pubs, shops, several leisure activities and a parking lot which can hold up to 2.000 cars.


THE TOWERS


The towers were built to avert the risk of sea invasions, since the peoples whose aim was not only to plunder Ostia but also Rome, often landed along the Latium coast.
That is the reason why fortified towers which serve as barracks (Tor Paterno) or as a look-out (Tor S. Michele) were built in addition to ordinary city walls.


TOR SAN MICHELE


This tower, built between 1564 and 1568 on request of Martino d’Ayala, commander of the garrison which defended Tiber’s mouth, owes its name to Pope Pius V, Michele Ghisleri who called it Tor S. Michele in honour of his patron saint Archangel Michael.
At first, Michelangelo Buonarroti was meant to design the tower but he never finished it because he died. Giovanni Lippi built the tower, respecting Michelangelo’splan.

Thanks to its strategic position, the Tower served as a look-out until the 19th century, because it doesn’t have loopholes or merlons through whic one could shoot but only sentry boxes: in fact, when three pirate ships from Tunis attacked it,it was eventually defeated.

Tor S. Michele was then used as a lighthouse and during the 2nd World War, both the German and American army occupied it.
With its three floors, the tower was built of bricks and in an octagonal polyhedron shape: each side is 18 meters long, and it stands 18 meters high.
The front gate once had a drawbridge (a gangway at present) over the moat, which now is almost completely filled up with earth.
The peculiarity of Michelangelo’s plan and the tower is the terrace which was once used as a drill-ground and which has an oblique floor, rather unusual for that time,- to help incendiary and explive bullets to slide into a central well.
The second floor, decorated by a papal coat of arms and by a memorial plaque with the date of its building, was probably the home of the tower captain, as two rooms here feature two fired brick fireplaces and little balconies with railings.


TOR BOACCIANA


Built on the ruins of the Ostia’s old lighthouse in the IX century, this tower is a square-shape and was built in bricks mixed with marble scales.
It was used to defend the Tiber mouth from Saracen pirates invasions.
Gradually fallen into disuse, it was restored by Pope Innocentius VII in 1406. It probably owes its name to the Italian noble family Bobazani who had the tower rebuilt in centuries XIV and XV.
Its history is linked to the fl ight of Pope Eugenius IV, who was forced by the troops led by the Italian noble family Colonna to renounce the temporal power and escape from Rome.
His precipitous flight ended when he reached Tor Boacciana, thus saving his life.


TOR PATERNO


Built on the ruins of the old villa of Emperor Augustus, this tower was built to defend the town of Castel Porziano and Pratica di Mare from Saracen pirates attacks.
After being damaged during these attacks, Pio V commissioned Marcantonio Colonna, who won the Battle of Lepanto (1571), to rebuild the tower.
Since he had previously named a tower near Anzio Tor Materna, in honour of his mother Jeanne of Aragon, he called this other tower Tor Paterno in honour of his father Ascanio.

In 1558, since the rebuilding was not completed yet, the tower couldn’t prevent Algerian pirates from occupying Pratica di Mare.
During the XVII century, the tower lost its defensive function as the sea receded, nevertheless the guards thwarted a terrible Tunisian pirate landing: the papal galleys caught them after the warning alert.
The last time Tor Paterno was attacked was in 1812, when the English navy, after having forced the sentinels to escape, blasted the tower.
It is for this reason that there is nothing left of it.


THE CHURCES


Christian worship places have ancient roots: the first basilicas, which, besides their religious function, sheltered the local people during the barbarian invasions of Latium coasts, date back to ancient Rome.
At present, as in the Roman era, the most important place of worship is S. Aurea Basilica, to be found in the suburb of Ostia Antica, flanked by more recent buildings, such as S. Aurea, which are also important from a historic and religious point of view: S. Maria Regina Pacis, the symbol of Neoclassic architecture and S. Monica, S. Francesco d’Assisi or S. Giorgio ad Acilia, which are important because they are consecrated to saints linked to the history of Ostia.


SANTA MARIA DI REGINA PACIS


In 1917, on the initiative of engineer Paolo Orlando and Pope Benedict XV, the town council donated the plot of land of the highest dune of the littoral (about 20 meters above sea level) to the Augustinian Fathers, to have a church built there.

The foundation-stone was laid before the bishop of Rome, Vincenzo Vannutelli, in 1919, but the building was completed only seven years later : it was inaugurated at the presence of architect Giulio Magni, who designed it, on 14th December 1926.
He designed and built the church drawing his inspiration from classic style and combining, at the same time, new materials such as reinforced concrete with travertine and brick.
The church was consecrated to the queen of peace to prevent something like the 1st World War from happening again.
Its five bells came from the renowned firm of Agnone (which supplied bells to the Vatican city) and were made of smelted cannons used by the Austrian army during the 1st World War.
But, in 1943 they were re-smelted to produce war guns.
The dome was similar to that of the bathing establishment Roma, as they formed a perspective axis which symbolized Ostia’s close connection with its sea.

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