The St Francis Housing Project: Rituals, Symbols and Discourses in Housing Policies in Rome after the Second World War

Moving beyond traditional approaches to housing policies in the field of urban history, this chapter shows how the symbolic and ritual dimension entered into play in the establishment and development of the Villaggio San Francesco (Village of St Francis), a social housing complex built on the outskirts of Rome in the post-war period as the outcome of the collaboration between a committee composed of citizens from Rome’s upper-middle class, which had launched a public fundraising campaign to pay for the work, the Catholic Church and the Municipality. The chapter illuminates the ways in which, through the effective use of symbolic references and the masterly organization of public ceremonies such as the laying of the cornerstone and the consignment of the dwellings to the assignees, a Catholic front that was the outcome of the synergy between influential sectors of civil society, the local administration and the Church was able to channel an articulate political discourse regarding the city. While, on the one hand, this discourse was embodied in this specific initiative for housing the homeless in an exemplary way, on the other it crossed its boundaries by also proposing a representation of authority and a model of urban governance with a broader scope.