The Era Fascista (lit. 'Fascist Era) was a calendar era (year numbering) used in Fascist Italy, introduced in 1926 (Anno IV) and officialized in 1927 (Anno V).Edgardo Baldi, Aldo Cerchiari, Enciclopedia moderna italiana, p. 1306 Each year of the Era Fascista (E.F.) was an Anno Fascista''' (A.F.).Adriano Cappelli, Cronologia, cronografia e calendario perpetuo, Hoepli, 1998, p. 131 Day 1 of Anno I of the Era Fascista corresponded to 29 October 1922, when Mussolini became prime minister after his March on Rome. Matthew Kneale, Rome: A History in Seven Sackings, Simon and Schuster, 2018, p. 296
The Era Fascista calendar was inspired by the French Republican calendar.Philip V. Cannistraro, "Mussolini's cultural revolution: fascist or nationalist?" in Roger Griffin, Matthew Feldman, eds., Fascism: Fascism and Culture in Fascism: Critical Concept in Political Science 3:194, Era Fascista dates often consisted of the Gregorian date followed by the corresponding Era Fascista year in Roman numerals, as part of Fascist propaganda's appropriation of ancient Roman iconography. The Era Fascista year was sometimes written as "Anno XIX", "A. XIX", or marked "E.F."Catherine E. Paul, Fascist Directive: Ezra Pound and Italian Cultural Nationalism, 2016, , p. 114 The calendar was intended to replace the "bourgeois" Gregorian calendar in Italian public life to the extent that, in 1939, newspapers were forbidden to write about New Year's Day.Simonetta Falasca-Zamponi, Fascist Spectacle: The Aesthetics of Power in Mussolini's Italy, 2000, , p. 105
The tenth anniversary of the March on Rome, Anno X, was called the Decennale (evoking the ancient Roman Decennalia). The propaganda centerpiece of Anno X was the Exhibition of the Fascist Revolution.B. Painter, Mussolini's Rome: Rebuilding the Eternal City, , 2016, p. 26
The calendar was abandoned in most of Italy with the fall of the Fascist regime in 1943 (Anno XXI), but continued to be used in the rump Republic of Salò until the death of Mussolini in April 1945 (Anno XXIII).Paolo Monelli, Mussolini: An Intimate Life, 1953, p. 288
Many monuments built during this period in Italian history still bear Era Fascista'' dates.
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