Near South Side in Chicago in Cook County, Illinois — The American Midwest (Great Lakes)
Balbo Monument
Photographed by Sean Flynn, October 7, 2023
1. Balbo Monument
The Italian-language text of this monument is on the panel pictured here, facing south and visible when zooming in.
di venti secoli antica
eretta sul lido di Ostia
porto di Roma Imperiale
a vigilare le fortune e le vittorie
delle tiremi Romane
l'Italia Fascista suspice Benito Mussolini
dona a Chicago
esaltazione simbolo ricordo
della squadra Atlantica guidata da Balbo
che con Romano ardimento trasvolo l'oceano
nell' anno XI
del littorio
[English translation:]
twenty centuries old
erected on the shores of Ostia
port of Imperial Rome
to safeguard the fortunes and victories
of the Roman triremes
Fascist Italy by command of Benito Mussolini
presents to Chicago
exaltation symbol memorial
of the Atlantic squadron led by Balbo
that with Roman daring flew across the ocean
in Year 11
of the Fascist Era
Erected 1934 by the people of Fascist Italy.
Topics. This historical marker and monument is listed in these topic lists: Anthropology & Archaeology • Parks & Recreational Areas. A significant historical year for this entry is 1934.
Location. 41° 51.69′ N, 87° 36.812′ W. Marker is in Chicago, Illinois, in Cook County. It is in the Near South Side. It can be reached
this page online
Regionally, this marker and monument is in the American Midwest and on the Great Lakes. Globally, it is in North America, the Western Hemisphere, the Western World, and the Anglosphere. Historically, it finds itself in what was once the Viceroyalty of New France, the territory of the Mississippian Culture, and the Northwest Territory.
Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within walking distance of this marker: Chicago Police Officers War Memorial (within shouting distance of this marker); Walter Payton (about 800 feet away, measured in a direct line); George S. Halas (approx. 0.2 miles away); Special Olympics Eternal Flame of Hope (approx. 0.3 miles away); Tribute to Freedom and Water Wall (approx. 0.3 miles away); Original Peoples Homeland
Photographed by Sean Flynn, October 7, 2023
2. Balbo Monument
A closer view of the marker's Italian-language text
More about this marker. The Italian-language inscription on the marker is weathered but generally readable. The four corners of the base of the monument included fascesbundles of rods holding an axe, used by Mussolini as symbols of his Fascist movement; however, those fasces were removed at some point. When this monument was visited in October 2023, it was surrounded by a chain-link fence. While it is close to Soldier Field, home of the Chicago Bears, and located a few dozen yards from the Gold Star Families Police Memorial and Park, its shady location nestled behind small berms amid trees, with no path from the police memorial, is quite quiet.
Regarding Balbo Monument. The Balbo Monument was donated in 1934 by Benito Mussolini to the City of Chicago, which boasted a large and vibrant Italian-American community. The column atop the monument, believed to date between 117 BC and 38 BC, was removed by Mussolini's orders from the ruins of an ancient Roman structure
Photographed by Sean Flynn, October 7, 2023
3. 2,000-year-old column from the port at Ostia
Mussolini dedicated the memorial in honor of Italo Balbo, the Italian Fascist leader who in 1933 had led a squadron of 24 planes from Italy to Chicago in the Italian force's first-ever transatlantic flight. Mussolini intended the memorial to serve as a celebration of Fascist Italy and his goal to link modern Italy with the glory of imperial Rome.
The monument was installed in 1934 in front of the Italian Pavilion at the Chicago's World's Fair (officially called A Century of Progress); 90 years later it remains in the same spot in Burnham Park, in the shadows of Soldier Field and close to where, overhead, Balbo had made his much-celebrated visit to Chicago a year earlier. In addition to this monument, other honors for Balbo included the renaming of 7th Street to Balbo Drive. Balbo
Photographed by Sean Flynn, October 7, 2023
4. Balbo Monument Fasces
Each of the four corners of the monument's base has fasces, however the original axes, used by Mussolini as symbols of Fascism, have been removed.
Both the Balbo Monument, with its explicit celebration of Fascism, and the Balbo Drive name remain in place as of 2024, despite periodic efforts since the end of World War II to remove them both. Most recently, a 2018 push to rename Balbo Drive after the African-American journalist Ida B. Wells ended with a compromise when the city instead renamed Congress Parkway after Wells. In 2020, a 1933 statue of Christopher Columbus in Grant Park, a couple of blocks from Balbo Drive and just a half-mile (as the crow flies) from the Balbo Monument, was taken down and put into storage after vandalism during the George Floyd protests was followed later by protesters' attempts to topple it.
Yet the Balbo Monument, while from time to time the site of protests, remains standing in the same spot it was placed 90 years earlier, surviving in part because of the archeological marvel on top of it, and perhaps in part because of its remote, easy-to-miss location in the shadows of the bustling city.
Also see . . .
1. A Column from Ostia in Chicago.
Courtesy of the Newberry Library, circa 1934
5. The Italian Village at the Century of Progress Exposition
This image is part of a collection of photos of "Foreign Villages" at the 1933-34 Century of Progress Exposition.
Click for more information.
Click for more information.
2. The Balbo Monument is in rough shape. What should we do with it?. A 2026 report on the Balbo Monument from WBEZ Chicago. (Submitted on May 13, 2026, by Sean P. Flynn of Oak Park, Illinois.)
3. Italo Balbo: A complex and controversial figure, from Italy to Grant Park. A look by the Chicago Sun-Times at the life and legacy of Italo Balbo, whose name lives on in Chicago with this monument outside Soldier Field as well as an east-west street through Grant Park. (Submitted on October 9, 2023, by Sean P. Flynn of Oak Park, Illinois.)
4. Balbo Monument (Chicago Park District). (Submitted on October 12, 2023, by Sean P. Flynn of Oak Park, Illinois.)
Courtesy of the Bess Bower Dunn Museum of Lake County, 1933
6. Balbo arrives in Chicago
Italo Balbo's squadron of 24 planes arrives in Chicago during 1933's Century of Progress. The parts of the fairgrounds in the background of the photo include the Electrical Group (the large semi-circle on the left), the Children's Theatre, Enchanted Island and Magic Mountain. The area today is parkland.
Chicago Historical Society, 1933
7. Chief Black Horn (left) and Italo Balbo (center) in 1933
According to the Chicago Historical Society's Encyclopedia of Chicago, the 1933 festivities celebrating Italo Balbo's visit to Chicago included members of the Sioux tribe, who were participating in the Chicago World's Fair's Indian Village, adopting Balbo as "Chief Flying Eagle." Chief Black Horn of the Sioux presented Balbo with a headdress, while Balbo in turn presented the chief with a Fascist medallion pendant.
Photographed by Sean P. Flynn, August 5, 2025
8. Ostia Antica
The column atop the Balbo Monument in Chicago was taken by Mussolini from Ostia Antica, the ruins of a port city. It had been part of a building called Prospetto a Mare, which was in the distance west of where this photo was taken in 2025.
Credits. This page was last revised on May 13, 2026. It was originally submitted on October 8, 2023, by Sean P. Flynn of Oak Park, Illinois. This page has been viewed 1,086 times since then and 116 times this year. Photos: 1, 2, 3. submitted on October 8, 2023, by Sean P. Flynn of Oak Park, Illinois. 4. submitted on October 9, 2023, by Sean P. Flynn of Oak Park, Illinois. 5. submitted on December 5, 2025, by Sean P. Flynn of Oak Park, Illinois. 6. submitted on October 10, 2023, by Sean P. Flynn of Oak Park, Illinois. 7. submitted on October 9, 2023, by Sean P. Flynn of Oak Park, Illinois. 8. submitted on August 8, 2025, by Sean P. Flynn of Oak Park, Illinois. • Bill Pfingsten was the editor who published this page.
