Aprilia, Italy, Europe
 
 
Year1936latitude: 41° 36'
longitude: 12° 39'
Period
Initiator(s)Benito Mussolini
Planning organizationOpera Nazionale Combattenti
Nationality initiator(s)Italy
Designer(s) / Architect(s) Petrucci, Tufaroli, Pauolini, Silenzi
Design organization
Inhabitants
Target population
Town website
Town related links
Literature

type of New Town: > scale of autonomy
New-Town-in-Town
Satellite
New Town
Company Town
> client
Private Corporation
Public Corporation
> policy
Capital
Decentralization
Industrialization
Resettlement
Economic
 

The centre of Aprilia.
source: Wikimedia Commons


Aprilia was founded as part of the draining and reclamation of the Pontine marshes, a huge 10-year operation initiated and undertaken by Benito Mussolini. A large infrastructural system of canals, dikes and pumping stations was put in place to turn the marshes into productive polders. Another aim was to beat the malaria and improve the hygienic circumstances. An army of 124.000 people was working on the project at the pinnacle around 1933.
Next to the reclamation a number of New Towns were built, amongst them Littoria, Sabaudia, Pontinia and Pomezia and a number of smaller villages.
The first inhabitants were poor migrants, mostly fascist families being resettled from the northern provinces of Veneto and Friuli, working the agricultural land. Many documentaries have been made on this topic and the harsh conditions of the first (and present day) workers and migrants.

source:

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