Palazzo di Città

On 24^th July 1943, the Grand Council of Fascism, the Party’s highest organ, held a meeting during which Dino Grandi, one of the most influential party officials who had gradually distanced himself from Mussolini’s positions, put forward a motion of no confidence in the Fascist leader. He won a majority, and the King appointed Marshal Pietro Badoglio as the new head of government, but the war continued with Italy alongside the Germans.

On 8^th September 1943, after the announcement of the armistice between Italy and the Allied forces, the King and Badoglio fled German-occupied Rome to take refuge in Pescara and later Brindisi. The Apulian city was already under Allied control following their landing in Sicily, and the Allies were travelling up the Italian peninsula. In the Southern Kingdom, which was at war with Germany, the anti-fascist parties were reconstituted. Territories were gradually liberated from German occupation, and the government moved to Salerno in February 1944.

The seat of government became the Palazzo di Città (City Palace), designed by architect Camillo Guerra and inaugurated in 1937. This was the meeting place of the first Council of Ministers of the Government of National Unity after the fall of Fascism. Today, the building houses the offices of the city’s municipal administration.

Photo: Palazzo di città, Salerno. Credits: Attilio Maiorana –