The invention of the italian "lungomare" and the monumental image of the city. The Sea line between Bari and Tripoli

At the end of '800, Italy became a new nation and timidly trying to build its own national identity. It will confront immediately with the need for expansion of the cities, just gone beyond the bounds of its city walls. Thus opens the way for that fervent period, rich in architectural and urban experimentation that, starting from the end of the '20s will infect the Italy and many Mediterranean countries. The main Italian coastal cities which until then had experienced the relationship with the sea in terms of defense and protection, almost to the point to deny it, by this time become places of a strong expressive research based on the ability to build a new relationship with the water. The image of a large new urban unit, visible by those who come and watch the city from the sea, becomes a new, specific, cultural and expressive choice. It was born in these terms the urban theme of the "lungomare", the picture frame in which the Italian cities built their monumental and scenographic image toward the sea. The "lungomare" thus becomes for the Italian architectural experimentation, especially during the Fascist period, a manifesto of national identity; a new vehicle of communication, necessary to symbolize the power (especially in the cities of southern Italy), and steer the Italian colonial policy towards other Mediterranean regions. In this perspective, we can interpret the experiences of lungomare of cities such as Bari and Taranto in Apulia Region, but also the contemporaneous and very often similar experiences of Tripoli and Benghazi, in the Libyan colony.