Adolf Hitler intended to recreate the Vatican's St Peter's Square in the
centre of Berlin to honour his ally Benito Mussolini, newly discovered documents
have revealed.
Albert Speer, the fuhrer's chief architect, was commissioned
to draw up the plans, which have been discovered by historians examining his
papers.
They had been stored in a secret room inside Moscow's Museum of
Architecture after being taken to Russia at the end of the Second World War.
In total, there were more than 200 boxes of files belonging to Speer, whose
grand designs for the rebuilding of Nazi Berlin under Hitler were already well
known.
But the plans for a new, Germanic version of St Peter's Square -
complete with a giant statue of Mussolini - in Berlin have astonished
historians.
Speer built a scale model of how he planned to recreate the
columns of St Peter's Square, which encircle the piazza in front of the
Basilica.
(snip)
"Speer's plans included the columns from the square and at the centre
instead of a fountain as in Rome there would be a huge statue of Benito
Mussolini.
"Hitler considered the Eternal City [Rome] to be the only city in
the world to rival Berlin so he wanted to better it in every way possible."
Speer's documents show that Hitler took a great interest in the plans and was
delighted with the architect's model.
The mind boggles.
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