, the
Museum of the Ara Pacis and two churches:
San Rocco at the Augusteum (on the left) and
San Girolamo dei Croati (on the right). The bigger church at the top right is
Sant'Ambrogio e Carlo al Corso. The demolitions of buildings around the Mausoleum of Augustus began in 1934, following the Rome Master Plan approved in 1931, with the aim, typical of the fascist regime, to celebrate the monuments of
ancient Rome. The architectural isolation of the Mausoleum from the other buildings was obtained through a large demolition work, which destroyed about 120 buildings (the former
San Rocco Hospital among others) on an area of about up to
Lungotevere in Augusta, similarly to other building projects carried out throughout the city in those years, such as
Via della Conciliazione and
Via dell'Impero. The design of the square is due to
Vittorio Ballio Morpurgo, but Massimo Piacentini (first cousin of the more famous
Marcello) was also involved in it. To enhance the monument, the square was surrounded by the three new large
headquarters of the INPS, in the
rationalist style, which were built in 1938 on the north, east and south sides. The west side, in the area of the former
Port of Ripetta (no longer existing at that time), was occupied by a celebratory structure made of glass and concrete, which housed the restored
Ara Pacis Augustae: this first temporary structure, designed by Morpurgo on the occasion of the Bimillennium of Augustus in 1938, was replaced only in 2006 by the present edifice designed by
Richard Meier, which houses the
Museum of the Ara Pacis. The works were definitively stopped only in 1952, following the mobilization of
Italia Nostra which criticized the plans for a further development of the square. In the summer of 2020, a new construction site was opened for an overall urban re-development of the square, with an expected duration of 2 years. ==See also==