The Museum and EUR
The Museum of Civilizations occupies a total space of about 50,000 square meters, including exhibition halls and storage rooms. The architecture of the EUR district gravitates around Piazza Guglielmo Marconi, initially named Piazza Imperiale and specifically designed as one of the centerpieces of the 1942 Universal Exposition of Rome (EUR), which was never inaugurated due to the outbreak of World War II.
The museum is housed in two buildings, both facing the piazza: the Palace of Sciences (Piazza G Marconi 14), which houses the prehistoric, paleontological, litho-mineralogical, African, American, Asian, Oceanian, Early Medieval, colonial and contemporary arts and cultures collections; and the Palace of Folk Arts and Traditions (Piazza G Marconi 8), which houses the collections of Italian folk arts and traditions.
Palace of Sciences
The Palace of Sciences was built to the designs of a working group composed of Luigi Brusa, Gino Cancellotti, Eugenio Montuori and Alfredo Scalpelli, in the years 1938-1943, reporting to Marcello Piacentini, architect in charge of the urban planning project for the 1942 Exposition. The facade is similar to that of the Palace of Folk Arts and Traditions: both were part of the same urban-architectural project centered on what was then Piazza Imperiale. From the outset the plans for the square included two museums, dedicated to ancient and modern art and sciences, and a cinema that was never realized.
The atrium of the Palace of Sciences is decorated with two frescoes by Valerio Fraschetti: of The Technical applications of science, on the right, we can see the preparatory background for the painting, interrupted because of the war, while The school of Galileo, on the left, is complete. On the second floor, at the top of the monumental staircase, is the large polychrome stained-glass window made between 1941 and 1942 by Giulio Rosso, a close collaborator of Marcello Piacentini and Gio Ponti. Also on the second floor, is the grand Hall of Sciences with its floor in pictorial marble inlay, made by Mario Tozzi in 1943.
Palace of Folk Arts and Traditions
The Palace of Folk Traditions was designed in 1938 by architects Massimo Castellazzi, Pietro Morresi, and Annibale Vitellozzi, as part of the core complex of the 1942 Universal Exposition. The building, which mirrors the Palaces of Sciences, consists of a main body fronted by a columned portico flanking the piazza, and two projecting bodies, one of which concludes in a columned propylaeum serving as an architectural backdrop to the piazza.
The interior decoration is concentrated in the Hall of Folk Arts and Traditions, where between 1940 and 1942, artists created a series of frescoes depicting scenes of traditional Italian life. Access to the hall is through a doorway decorated in marble bas-reliefs showing Characteristic elements of folklore, by Amerigo Tot (1909-84). A commission to Ferruccio Scattola (1873-1950) for decoration the floor in marble inlays, with the theme of Costumes, masks and other decorative elements, was withdrawn before the work was begun.

The exterior mosaics of Depero and Prampolini
Facing each other on the sides of the Palace of Sciences and the Palace of Folk Arts and Traditions are two mosaics, respectively by Fortunato Depero, titled The professions and the arts and Enrico Prampolini, titled The corporations. Both completed in 1942 and now fully restored, they can be viewed by crossing through the columned propylaeum that connects the two buildings, arriving from the side of Piazza Marconi.
Fortunato Depero, The professions and the arts
Fortunato Depero (1892-1960) authored the polychrome mosaic The professions and the arts decorating the exterior walls of the Palace of Sciences, in complement to the mosaic of Enrico Prampolini, on the Palace of Folk Arts and Traditions. Depero was probably commissioned by Cipriano Efisio Oppo, vice-president of the Autonomous Board of the Universal Exposition of Rome. The extensive correspondence between Depero, Oppo and architect Ernesto Puppo, preserved in the Central State Archives, testifies to the troubled realization of the mosaic, which involved several modifications, especially with regard to alignment with the chromaticisms of Prampolini’s neighboring project. The work was completed on 15 June 1942, as Depero’s words to Oppo attest, “My illustrious and dearest Oppo, here I am returning from Rovereto. […] I am glad to have pleased you.”
Enrico Prampolini, The corporations
Enrico Prampolini (1894-1956) authored the monumental polychrome mosaic The corporations decorating the exterior walls of the Palace of Folk Arts and Traditions, in complement to the mosaic of Fortunato Depero on the Palace of Sciences. Documentary traces of the genesis of the mosaic are found in a letter of invitation from Rodolfo Rustichelli, Director of Artistic Services of the Universal Exposition Rome, sent to the artist on 22 December 1940. In October of the next year Prampolini signed a contract establishing the manner of execution and fees, although by that time the artist was already active on the worksite. By May 1942 the mosaic was complete. In the central part are four anthropomorphic figures symbolizing Credit, Commerce, Industry and Agriculture, the latter represented by a contadino woman, with a background composed of a geometric grid bearing the symbols of the relevant corporations.
The frescoes of Valerio Fraschetti
The Technical applications of science, also known as The modern sciences, is a wall painting made between 1942 and 1943 by Valerio Fraschetti (1910-1977) located in the foyer of the Palace of Sciences. It is a sinopia, meaning a preparatory draft of the final decoration, which was never completed. The work was made by spreading a coarse gray mortar on the wall, followed by a thinner plaster. The artist applied the design on the plaster solely in shades of gray, while with a red color he divided the scene in several portions, numbered from left to right.
On the opposite side of the foyer is a second work, completed by Fraschetti between 1942 and 1943, when Italy was already in war. The work, initially titled The history of inventions, but later becoming The school of Galileo, presents a nationalist theme in exaltation of the primacy of Italy and Rome, coherent with the entire project of the Universal Exposition, or “Olympics of Civilizations”. Italian genius is represented by the figure Galileo Galilei, inventor of the experimental scientific method, portrayed next to his telescope facing the sky. Also in the scene are the zodiac signs, symbolizing pre-scientific knowledge.
The marble intarsias of Mario Tozzi
The marble intarsia floor at the center of the Hall of Honor constitutes just one element of the extensive decorative program of the Palace of Sciences, dedicated to the protagonists and histories of the scientific disciplines, with the building itself designed to host the science exhibitions of the 1942 Universal Exposition, never inaugurated due to entry of Italy into war.
Known as “Decorative elements relating to science”, the author of the work is Mario Tozzi (1895-1979), an artist who after an initial post-impressionist phase adopted a classicist style, deepened in his relationships with other Italian artists of the times. Between 1935 and 1944 he executed a number of wall decorations, including the frescoes Paradise lost for the Palace of Justice in Milan and The sailor for the central pavilion of the Venice Biennial. It was at this same time, in 1941, that Tozzi designed the floor of the Palace of Sciences.
Tozzi devised a scene divided into a number of panes symbolically representing the disciplines of Cosmography, Physics, Physiology, Paleontology and Zoology. At the center is the representation of the goddess Minerva, whose identity is traced to Etruscan deities and the Greek goddess Athena. Minerva, for the ancient Romans, was the goddess of heroic virtues and of war for just cause or defense, but also of wisdom and, as such, protector of the “useful” arts (architecture, artisanry, geometry, engineering, mathematics) and the sciences in general. Her attributes were the shield, helmet, and spear, which in Tozzi’s depiction are laid on the ground, suggesting a wish for peace, while the goddess holds an open book and quill in metaphoric exaltation of scientific culture. The work is executed entirely in Italian stone and marble, whose uses for architectural and decorative purposes are also documented in the ISPRA litho-mineralogical collections displayed in the same hall.
The polychrome stained-glass of Giulio Rosso
At the top of the grand staircase rising to the second floor we find the monumental polychrome stained-glass window Decorative elements relating to astronomy, created between 1941 and 1942 by Giulio Rosso (1897-1976), a close collaborator of Marcello Piacentini, architect in charge of the entire EUR project, and Gio Ponti, associated with the development of modern industrial design. The work consists of 54 rectangular panels presenting a complex design of planets, zodiac signs, astronomical instruments and diagrams of the Ptolemaic and Copernican conceptions of the universe. With the cancellation of the proposed Exposition, Rosso’s work was placed in storage, and it was not until 1986 that it was mounted in its intended place.
The frescoes in the Hall of Honor
On the entrance wall of the Hall of Honor are the frescoes Festival of the birds by Mario Varagnolo (1901-71), Threshing wheat by Domenico Colao (1881-1943), Funeral in Puglia by Emanuele Cavalli (1904-81), The ox of St. Zopito, by Tommaso Cascella (1890-1968), and – only partially completed – Wedding in Sardinia by Umberto Bertoletti (1889-1971).
On the end wall of the hall are the frescoes Transport of must in Romagna by Garibaldo Guberti (1907-74), Blessing of the boat by Antonio Barrera (1889-1970), Tuna slaughter by Pietro Barillà (1890-1953), and a Procession, only partially completed, by Orazio Amato (1884-1953). Mario Gambetta (1886-1968) was to have executed a last fresco, Baptism in Liguria, but in its place is a cartoon attributed to Filippo Figari (1885-1937), depicting a Sardinian procession.