"Si fondano le Città"
II. The Construction Period

The regime thought the construction of the new town a most important event, disseminating information through the newspapers every step of the way, from the competition to the inauguration, and the first threshing in Sabaudia a couple of months later. The whole nation and many people abroad knew about the calculated marvellous work being done in the Pontine Marshes. On August 4, Victor Emmanuel III signed the relativo Decreto-Legge no 1771. And the next day, at 3:00 pm, the ceremony of laying the foundation stone was begun. Mussolini, Achille Starace (the party secretary), Cencelli, and Monsignor Pio Leonardo Navarra, bishop of Terracina, were among the prominent participants at the ceremony. The parchment was signed by Mussolini and Cencelli, and read aloud to the public by Starace, before it was deposited in the foundation stone together with two coins (one of the kingdom, and one of the Vatican State) minted the same year.[1] Navarra sanctified the foundation stone. The ancient Roman tradition of ploughing a fur indicating the boundary of the town (pomerium), and thus sanctifying the area, was reinvented using a tractor. The church’s participation in these endeavors is a study in itself, but one should perhaps not be surprised as the church often through history maintained an active role with different regimes and powers. The church itself also being an extension of the Roman Empire entitled it to a ceremonial role in the Fascist rule.

According to one contemporary newspaper reporting on the new town, 6,000 workers were employed to complete the town before inauguration on 15 April 1934.[2] The workers were engaged in three shifts of eight hours.[3] Another source states that in the end as many as 14,500 workers, “called in from all parts of Italy,” were working on the construction site to complete the most important buildings in time.[4] However, church, school, covered market, water tower, or Balilla building were either not completed or even begun at this date. Several of the buildings facing the main square had only the façades rigged for the inauguration.[5] On 18 December 1933 Mussolini visited the construction site and gave a speech to the workers:

“I am pleased to to speak to you from high up on this scaffolding that has been constructed to make your toil easier. You have been granted a grand privilege, that of constructing a new town. I have been informed of your work conditions, and decided that your work will be justly compensated, both for you and your families. When all these buildings are finished, when people live in these houses, when all the territory is populated by farmers, you will be able to say: we, with our work, have been the founders of your town.”[6]