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Abstract: The origins of the Eur district of Rome go back to the mid-1930s when a project was proposed under the name E42 for a Universal Exhibition to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the birth of the Fascist movement. Mussolini, who recognised it’s political and propagandistic potential, was closely involved in the project which, in line with the neo-imperialist aspirations of the time, was to become the new centre of a Greater Rome, a metropolis destined to expand way beyond the via Ostiense and as far as the sea. Initially, architects with a wide range of cultural backgrounds were employed on the project, some of whom even had affinities with international modern architecture. Nevertheless they would quickly be forced to submit to the dominant personality of Marcello Piacentini. The academic background of Piacentini, along with his subdued modernism, were found to be more favourable to the wishes of the regime. The outbreak of war and the drama of defeat would bring the project to a traumatic halt, and once work was continued on the unfinished buildings, it would not be until 1953 when the new suburb could be unveiled, under the revised denomination of the Eur. After a long process of completion, and with the creation of numerous head-offices for large public organisations and ministries along with residential areas, only now can the Eur be said to have reached a definitive stage of urban assimilation.