La bonifica e la pentapoli pontina: tra verità e stereotipi

The reclamation of the Agro Pontino - and part of the Roman Agro - was one of the most important works in the history of Italy, programmed by Mussolini who wanted to transform that area, for centuries unhealthy and impenetrable, in the large garden of Rome with small rural villages in the service of the reclamation. In a few years with the help of legislative initiatives made to complete the colossal enterprise which included the birth of five new cities (Latina, Aprilia, Pomezia, Sabaudia, Pontinia) assigned to settlers arriving especially from the Veneto and Friuli regions and fourteen rural villages, the construction of roads and canals, the building of farms and the defeat of various diseases, primarily malaria. The activity was entrusted to the ONC and two consortiums of the Pontine Reclamation and of the Littoria Reclamation, lasted until 1937 on an extension of 137 thousand hectares, of which approximately 75 thousand belonging to the Agro Pontino. At the end of the reclamation 18 large scooping were used, 16,165 km of canals were constructed or reactivated and 1,360 kilometers of roads were opened, 3,040 houses were built and 4,500 groundwater or artesian wells were drilled. At the present currency exchange the transaction can be estimated to be around 30 billion / € . There are many truths and stereotypes that lie behind the fascist reclamation and the creation and subsequent development of the Pentapolis, but what is perhaps more real is that this reclamation has two great advantages: it 'operated' a territory that from that time has made history by transforming itself from an inaccessible place of death to a symbol of the victory of man over nature, along with the birth of the five pontine cities. Littoria is the most significant case because the foundation of the city is also connected to the birth of the Province that goes by the same name and has been the capital since 1934. It goes without saying although the remediation has not been completed, it has certainly changed its content.