The “Casa del Fascio” of Bologna, inaugurated on 28th of October
1923, was one of the first of its kind in Italy. It was the place assigned to
the main political activities of the Fascist Party’s town and provincial
section, but it was also conceived as a real regime’s propaganda machine,
open to everybody, whether member of the Fascist National Party or not, until
late at night.
Located in the town centre, within the fifteenth-century Palazzo Fava, formerly
Ghisilardi (now housing the Museo Medievale), the “Casa del Fascio”
was financed through a subscription “imposed” to the owners of the
major commercial and industrial firms of Bologna.
Together with political and cultural activities, such as the courses in culture
of politics of the fascist university, it hosted above all equipments and facilities
for leisure and entertainment. There were a café with three billiard
rooms, a restaurant, a daytime hotel equipped with all comforts, a public telephone,
the telegraph and a library.