Forte Prenestina: A Prussian-Style Fort in Rome’s Defensive System
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.5
- Popularity
- Medium
- Country
- Italy
- Primary era
- Modern
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Modern
- Civilizations
- Italian
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Fort
On this page6 sections
History
Forte Prenestina is a nineteenth-century military fortification in Rome, Italy, built under the Kingdom of Italy in the Prussian style between 1880 and 1884. It formed part of the 15 forts constructed around Rome between 1877 and 1891 to defend the capital, whose military fortifications followed its designation as the kingdom’s capital in 1871. The fort’s strategic defensive function ended in 1919.
Construction and military use
Construction began in 1880 and was completed in 1884. The fort took its name from Via Prenestina, situated at its fourth kilometer in the Prenestino-Centocelle district. Its role was to contribute to the defensive system surrounding Rome, a unified state capital that required new military infrastructure after the establishment of the Kingdom of Italy.
Municipal ownership and abandonment
After its military function ended, the fort remained abandoned for many years. The 1962 municipal master plan assigned it to public green space, and a later plan confirmed its use for public green space and local public services. The Municipality of Rome took possession of the complex in 1977. Before its later reuse, prolonged neglect had left the fort serving as an illegal dumping ground despite its position in a densely populated neighborhood.
The 1986 occupation and social center
On 1 May 1986, young people from the Prenestino-Centocelle neighborhood occupied the fort during the culmination of the Non-Work Festival, which had been held since 1983 in the adjacent public park. The festival was organized by the cultural association Adesso Basta and the newspaper, fanzine, and manifesto Vuoto a Perdere. Groups and musical formations including ACAB, Urban Destroy, Fuori dal Ghetto, and Banda Bassotti also took part in the occupation.
The occupants adapted the abandoned complex for social, cultural, political, and workshop activities. The self-managed social center CSOA Forte Prenestino, an Italian abbreviation meaning “Occupied Self-Managed Social Center,” has been based there since 1 May 1986. It developed political and social initiatives at the fort and marked 30 years of activity in 2017, placing it among Rome’s oldest social centers.
In 1993, La Cordata per l’autoproduzione emerged at the fort through the work of Assalti Frontali, AK47, One Love Hi Pawa, and Musica Forte. The initiative aimed to build an alternative network for self-produced and self-distributed music connected with social centers and movement-based organizations.
Remains
Forte Prenestina occupies 13.4 hectares and combines a military fortification with extensive interior spaces and green areas. Designed according to a nineteenth-century Prussian fortification tradition, the complex belongs to Rome’s wider 15-fort defensive system. At the beginning of the 1986 occupation, its spaces and grounds were heavily degraded and filled with waste. Subsequent adaptation work made the former military complex usable for a broad range of community activities.
Adapted cultural and workshop spaces
The reused interior spaces include an infoshop, a community space for information and the distribution of books, pamphlets, and cultural materials, as well as a cinema, theater and performance rooms, and a tea room. Other facilities include a kitchen, pub, gym, recording studio, record label, and music rehearsal room. The complex also contains screen-printing and drawing workshops, a bicycle workshop, sculpture and carpentry workshops, graphics, natural-cosmetics and photography workshops, and a tattoo studio.
These facilities occupy and adapt the former military complex for social, cultural, political, and productive purposes. Restoration and the development of the fort’s cultural and political projects have been supported through self-financing by the social center.
