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Latina, Lazio

Comune in Lazio, Italy

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Latina, Italy
Apaleutos25 · CC BY-SA 4.0

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Through Italy, Rome and Italian fascism

It is one of the youngest cities in Italy, being founded as Littoria in 1932 under the fascist administration, when the area surrounding it which had been a swamp since antiquity was drained.

History

Although the area was first settled by the Latins, the modern city was founded by Benito Mussolini on 30 June 1932 as Littoria, named for the fascio littorio. The city was inaugurated on 18 December of the same year, 171 days only to build up. Littoria was populated with settlers coming mainly from Friuli and Veneto, who formed the so-called Venetian-Pontine community (today surviving only in some peripheral boroughs). The edifices and the monuments, mainly in rationalist style, were designed by famous architects and artists such as Marcello Piacentini, Angiolo Mazzoni and Duilio Cambellotti.

In 1934 it became a provincial capital and, after World War II, renamed Latina in 1946. With the arrival of other people mostly from Lazio itself, the original Venetian-like dialect was increasingly substituted by a form of Romanesco dialect.

The city coat of arms is a blue shield with a stylized drawing of the City Hall Clock Tower in the middle, standing on a field of green, and flanked by two stalks of wheat tied at the base with a red ribbon engraved with the motto LATINA OLIM PALUS ("Latina, once a swamp") in Latin. The shield is surmounted by a mural crown.

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