Palazzo di Giustizia (1889-1910 A.D.)

Look familiar? Yes, another monument to the national glory! Yada, yada, yada.  In English: “The Palace of Justice.”  In Italian: “Il Palazzaccio.” Roughly translated, it means: “the rotting, diseased, falling down wreck of a palace.” On one level, it was absolutely true. By the 1970’s the building was collapsing. Although it took 21 years to build, for the time that was the equivalent of its being thrown up overnight. Shoddy workmanship, inferior materials, and a concern with making the building look good over all other considerations, led to the place becoming a falling-down rat trap after a few years. You can’t see it from this angle, but the building is all façade. There’s nothing behind it, just an ordinary brick office building. It’s kind of like a storefront from an old west town. The other meaning of the nickname is a derisive comment on the ostensible purpose of the building: the dispensation of justice.

The unification of Italy was sold to the people as a cure-all for every problem. Once the new country came into being, everything would change. Taxes would be lowered. Law and order would be restored to all. Trade, freed from the burden of petty bureaucracy, would explode, and commerce flourish. The poor would be helped, the middle class encouraged, and the rich would become benevolent. Culture would flower, and the malign influence of superstition disappear. Italy would become a free, powerful, prosperous, democratic, energetic nation, and take its rightful place among the respected members of the world community.

It didn’t happen. The country was saddled with a degenerate half-wit as its new constitutional monarch: Victor Emmanuel II, King of Savoy. He never even bothered to learn Italian and spoke French his whole life. About 10% of the population got the vote. Taxes were raised for everyone except the wealthy. Red tape flourished, and the defense budget skyrocketed. Even military glory was denied the new state. The Italian Army was poorly trained and equipped, and miserably led by its new monarch. It got its ass kicked in every war it fought. Think of the United States under George W. Bush.

The dispensation of justice was the biggest joke of all. The Church was despoiled, and its lands snapped up by speculators. The peasants ended up with nothing, although if they complained loud enough, they would get a visit from the new national army.  So, one can understand why the average Italian citizen looks with a somewhat jaundiced eye at the “Palace of Justice.” Nice picture though huh?  Especially in that light.