Rewriting the Past, Reshaping Naples: The Afterlives of the 1940 Mostra d’Oltremare

The Mostra d’Oltremare, inaugurated in Naples in 1940, was one of Italy’s most ambitious international expositions of the Fascist era, yet it remains surprisingly overlooked in scholarship on world’s fairs and Fascist Italy. This paper explores the exposition as a site of historical reception and urban transformation, examining how its architectural designs, monumental layouts, and symbolic references conveyed visions of modernity, civic order, and national prestige. Moving beyond the view of international exhibitions as temporary spectacles, the paper focuses on the exposition’s enduring imprint on the urban landscape of Fuorigrotta, the neighborood where the exposition grounds were gradually reconfigured into residential districts, public parks, and sports facilities.

Drawing on archival materials, urban plans, and visual sources, the paper highlights how the Mostra d’Oltremareselectively mobilized historical models of authority, while the site itself was later repurposed and contested in postwar Naples. The transformation of the Mostra into a public heritage site also raises questions about its legacy as a problematic symbol of Fascist ideology. Attention is given to the uneven legacies of this transformation, including debates over preservation, adaptive reuse, and the marginalization of the site in contemporary narratives of Neapolitan urban history.

By focusing on its afterlives, the paper situates the Mostra d’Oltremare within broader trajectories of urban development and collective memory, demonstrating how the intersection of past and present shaped the evolution of modern cities while complicating the way heritage sites are understood and contested in post-Fascist Italy.