EUROPE
Sabaudia, Italy: Designed to win the Battle of Grain, it is an attractive resort area
It was created at Benito Mussolini's behest.
Sabaudia, about 50 miles southeast of Rome, was one of five towns created virtually from scratch in the 1930s when
Like nearby Latina, Pomezia, Pontinia and Aprilia, Sabaudia was a planned community and showplace for the modern Fascist architectural style, celebrated in the August 1934 issue of National Geographic magazine. But it differed from the other newborn towns because it was also an attractive resort area, with a long, beautiful beach underneath Mt. Circeo, now part of a national park.
The town center, built in 253 days by 6,000 men working continually, is a straight, five-mile shot southwest of the Pontina highway (SS 148), passing agricultural canals, fields, planned villages and ready-made farmhouses for colonists transplanted from the north. Part of Il Duce's plan was to disperse unruly urban populations with a penchant for Communism, which he saw as threats to Fascist rule.
The tall square tower of the unadorned, geometrical Town Hall marks the heart of Sabaudia, now a prosperous, clean community with parks and wide sidewalks lined by helmet-shaped topiary trees.
The massive Church of the Annunziata looms to the north, fronted by a large mosaic, designed by Ferruccio Ferrazzi in 1935, with an image of Il Duce holding an armful of wheat in the bottom left corner. The nearby baptistery on the porch of the church is shaped like a cylinder.
From there, a causeway crosses a lagoon, arriving on a narrow strip of beach and dunes. There are a few restaurants, bathing establishments and hotels, including the excellent Oasi di Kufra ( www.oasidikufra.it, doubles from $96 per person). But for the most part, the area is wild and unspoiled with a beach that bears the European Blue Flag standard for cleanliness, which health and fitness-minded Il Duce would have appreciated.
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