At the beginning of the twentieth century the economy of Carrara experienced a very strong economic growth, sustained by favorable market trends and technological innovations introduced in the extraction, processing and transportation of marble. This expansion continued, with the exception of the war period, until 1927: the largest firm, “Carlo Fabbricotti and Bernardo Fabbricotti and Sons,” came to employ more than one thousand one hundred workers, with international branches and four large warehouses with sawmills scattered between Copenhagen, Amsterdam, New York and Buenos Aires. There were about ten entrepreneurs capable of selling marble directly to world markets, moving average quantities that, between 1925 and 1927, exceeded 245,000 tons annually. The population increased by 50 percent within thirty years, approaching sixty thousand, a value in line with those of today.
This economic vitality was matched by extensive building expansion, with the erection of new buildings, mostly private: the opening of Viale XX Settembre (1906-1915), equipped with a double track for the electric tramway, opened up new prospects, and along its route villas and elegant homes were built for the marble bourgeoisie.
Public interventions focused on infrastructure, and only returned to an architectural character after the financial crisis erupted: the effects of Mussolini’s monetary policy, which had led to soaring marble prices, combined with the shock wave of the Great Depression of 1929, led to a market collapse and the bankruptcy of many Carrara companies.
Dating to the immediately following years are a number of monumental buildings made with extensive use of local marble, the post office building, completed in 1934, the Opera Nazionale Balilla, inaugurated the following year, and the INAIL headquarters, begun in 1940 but completed in the early postwar period.
The former, contrary to similar realizations in nearby Massa and La Spezia, was not entrusted to the usual Angiolo Mazzoni, an architect favored by the regime for erecting postal and railway buildings, but to Giuseppe Boni of Carrara (1884-1936). The building, which retains its original function, stands at the entrance to the historic center, at the intersection of Via Aronte and Via Mazzini, imposing itself on the surrounding buildings with its imposing marble bulk. The octagonal turret with the clock is the centerpiece of the building and corresponds to the large central atrium, articulated on two levels, on which the counters of the public services still open. The access staircase is flanked by two monumental marble statues by Sergio Vatteroni (1890-1975), The Quarryman and The Sculptor, while the side wings are adorned with bas-reliefs in dark bardiglio representing allegories of Land, Sea, Air and Radio communications . Everything is clad, internally and externally, in local marbles with extensive use of bardiglio, in various shades of color, in an effort to provide a clear demonstration of the possibilities offered by the use of stone in construction.
The same Boni is also responsible for the design of the Balilla House, where the motif of the octagonal corner body returns to articulate the elevation of the complex. Renaissance suggestions prevail in this case, with a massive smooth ashlar plan, on which a giant order of pilasters rises. Marble cladding, with a strong monumental impact, affects the entire basement, and covers in its entirety the simpler volume of the theater. After the war, the building housed the “Vittorino da Feltre” consortium boarding school then, since 1985, the “Artemisia Gentileschi” State High School of Art. The theater hall, on the other hand, was converted to an art-house movie theater in 1980: it currently houses the privately run “Nuovo Cinema Garibaldi” and occasionally lends itself to public performances or events.
A few tens of meters away is the INAIL building, whose main façade insists on Via Cucchiari: the project, drawn up by the technical office of the then INFAIL, was designed by Aldo Scarzella (1890-1962) in pure rationalist style, with marble cladding extending to the semicircular forepart on Via Bartolini. The complex, after having housed offices and housing, unfortunately lies in a state of complete abandonment.