Museum of Roman Civilization

A trip to EUR, Rome’s starkly modern “city” located about 7 km (4.3 miles) outside the historic city center, will reveal a plethora of huge contemporary structures proposed by Mussolini for a 1942 exposition that never materialized, due to World War II.
The Fascist leader hired architect Marcello Piacentini to design these monumental buildings, which many believed were an insult to the wonderful classic architecture of the Eternal City.

However, Mussolini’s project never really became what he meant it to be. The unfinished area reverted to the control of the new government after the war, and soon housed a number of government offices and other civic buildings.
While some visitors head to EUR just to take a look at Mussolini’s failed dreams, there are a few things worth visiting there. The most notable is the Museo della Civilta Romana.

Museo della Civilta Romana was designed by architects Pietro Ascheri, D. Bernardini and Cesare Pascoletti and was built between 1939 and 1941. It’s divided into 59 sections that illustrate the history of Roman civilization.

Ask any previous visitor about their favorite part of the museum and they will probably tell you about the scale model of Rome designed by Italo Gismondi. The 20 by 20m (66x66ft) large model shows the buildings of Rome during the reign of the emperor Constantine I (early 4th century). The model is 1:250 scale and took 36 years to complete. It can be viewed from a elevated platform. The details are fascinating and the model is reason enough to make the trip to EUR.

Also inside the museum, guests will find a fascinating display of the complete sequence of casts of the spiral reliefs around Trajan's Column, arranged in horizontal rows at ground level for easy viewing. The panels, which in total had a length of more than 150m (almost 500ft), fill a whole room and can be viewed from up close.

Besides the scale model of Rome and the panels of Trajan's column, there are many other artifacts on display in the museum. There are many mosaics, reliefs and utensils that give some insight on daily life in ancient Rome, like the 3rd century decree from Diocletianus meant to put a halt to the rampant inflation.