ITALIAN STADIUMS IN PORTUGAL : ARCHITECTURE AND PROPAGANDA

During the two dictatorial regimes, of Mussolini in Italy and Salazar in Portugal, the two countries established a close network of relations: political, diplomatic and in the field of architecture. The paper analyzes and clarifies the project for the National Stadium in Lisbon, which represented one of the symbols of its nationalist and totalitarian propaganda. In a complex and more articulated construction of public works, Italian architecture was taken as a ‘model’, even through the disclosure given by the press and the study trip and supported by government politicians. While Portuguese historiography has often put the influences of German and Italian architecture on the same level, this research - carried out in the Portuguese archives - shows that, in the specific case of the national stadium, the main ‘example’ can be traced to the Stadio dei Marmi of the Foro Mussolini in Rome.