The recommendation to remove the dome of the Great Synagogue, situated near the banks of the River Tiber, made by the Rome Planning Commission appointed by Signor Mussclini to prepare a scheme for the beautifying of the city, has nothing else behind it than the desire to improve the skyline of the city, Signor Marcello Piacentini, the famous architect, who is the Rapporteur of the Commission, declared in an interview with the J.T.A. representative here to-day.
The recommendation caused consternation among the Jews of Rome, and in some quarters it was suggested that it might be found to have been put forward because of some obligation assumed by the Government towards the Vatican in connection with the Concordat, to help to preserve the Christian character of Rome, which the Dome on the Synagogue would be regarded as disturbing.
The recommendation is prompted by nothing more than the purely architectural desire to preserve the skyline of the City, Signor Piacentini declared, and altogether unconcerned with political or religious considerations. Now that the Rome ghetto has been removed, the synagogeu is isolated, and the dome appears to us to clash with the ancient buildings that have been uncovered in the recent excavations.
We have no intention, he went on, of introducing political or religious passions in this affair. We are concerned solely with questions of architectural amenities. We intend to demolish the old church near the Capitol and to rebuild several chapels. That shows that we are not confining ourselves to Jewish religious buildings. We are influenced by nothing else than purely aesthetic reasons, and I really believe that in the interests of these the dome of the synagogue should be removed.
When my father, and other famous architects approved the plans for the building of the synagogue about 30 years ago, he continued, the archeological zone had not yet been isolated from the surrounding buildings, and the old ghetto still stood all round the synagogue. Conditions now have changed very much and what held good at that time no longer holds good now. There is no doubt, he said, that with the establishment of the new archeological zone, the scheme for the preservation of our ancient buildings, the removal of the ghetto and the general planning of a harmonious skyline for the Eternal City, the dome of the Rome synagogue clashes and should be removed.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
