Assistenza infantile a Roma tra liberismo e dittatura. I padiglioni Infantiae Salus e il caso della ‘ex-filanda’ di viale Castrense

Regarding the welfare policies in the new Italian Capital, interventions to protect children played a fundamental role. Still, they were left largely to the initiative of private institutions, often supported by the liberal policies of the time. The four Infantiae Salus pavilions, whose construction was approved in 1920, fit into this context and intended to help children in the Appio, Testaccio, Trastevere and Prati districts. These buildings, entrusted to the management of the Opera Pia Di Donato (which was very active in the city of Rome), ensured support for children who were not orphans but whose families were reluctant to enrol them in school - due to their misery or ignorance - or who were unable to offer adequate support after school. The paper intends to analyse the preliminary project of the Pavilions, with the relative prescriptions on design and building techniques; then to analyse the variations that occurred in the construction of the pavilion currently known as the ‘ex-filanda’ in viale Castrense, also identifying the conservation problems connected to recent proposals for the urban regeneration of the area.