What is ATRIUM?

ATRIUM- Architecture of Totalitarian Regimes in Europe’s Urban Memory, is a European cultural route, certified by the Council of Europe in April 2014. The route aims to develop cultural tourism around the architectural and urban heritage of totalitarian regimes of the twentieth century.

The legacy of totalitarian regimes

The traces of the dictatorial regimes of the 20th century, can still be seen in a particular architectural and urban legacy still highly visible on the urban landscape of European cities to the east as well as to the west. Forlì, the headquarters of the ATRIUM Association, is a city which underwent considerable urban development with notable examples of public and private architecture constructed during the Fascist period. Many other towns and cities in Europe show a similar dissonant legacy: from Dimitrovgrad and Sofia in Bulgaria to Rhodes in Greece, Labin and Rasa in Croatia and many more. The responses to this legacy have on the whole so far been the avoidance of its symbolic or historical significance. The ATRIUM project and cultural route aims to highlight this symbolic and historical significance as an object of cultural interest and an opportunity for a critical and historical reflection on the regimes which produced it. The route is strongly based on an explicit rejection of all forms of historical revisionism and apologetics with regard to authoritarian, dictatorial or totalitarian regimes and is dedicated to the promotion of democratic values, as is made explicit in the statute of the Association.

The ATRIUM Route

The ATRIUM Association has 20 members from Italy (Bertinoro, Carbonia, Castrocaro Terme e Terra del Sole, Cervia, Cesena, Cesenatico, Forlì, Forlimpopoli, Merano, Predappio, Torviscosa and Tresignana), from Croatia (Labin and Rasa), from Bulgaria (Dimitrovgrad), and from Romania (Iasi County and the Municipality of Stei).

The emphasis of the route on examples of architecture and urban development in south east Europe is a consequence of the emergence of the route from a specific project financed under the European Commission’s South East Europe Programme. This emphasis does not preclude the extension of the route to towns and cities in other parts of Europe.

Atrium is also supported by a network of over 20 universities and research centres in 11 different European countries and an international scientific committee which oversees its activities.

Activities of the Route

The ATRIUM association is committed to promoting activities in the following areas:

· Cooperation in research and development;

· The enhancing of the memory and history of European twentieth-century architectural and urban heritage related to totalitarian or dictatorial regimes;

· Educational exchanges and visits;

· Contemporary cultural expressions around the themes of the route;

· Sustainable cultural tourism.