Journey through the figures and the history of the most important ministry in Italy: that of the Economy

In the halls of Palazzo Chigi the alchemy of formal power is consummated, but in the dungeons of Palazzo Sella the cauldron of much more lumpy and resistant material power simmers. The priest of the debt officiates the rite of that very secular representation called state balancein the largest and most impressive public building in the capital after the Quirinale, with a perimeter of about one kilometer. The building that houses the Mef (Ministry of Economy and Finance), saw the light in 1876 after only five years of work. The work was designed by the engineer Raffaele Canevari who had also worked on the embankments to stem the Tiber, helped by famous artists from different schools. Francesco Pieroni designed the Renaissance-style quadriportico in the main courtyard, in the center of which stands the elongated fountain. The sculptor Ercole Rosa, author of the Vittorio Emanuele II on horseback in Piazza Duomo in Milan, created together with Pietro Costa (known for the monument to Mazzini in Genoa) the two pediments of via Cernaia and via XX Settembre, the long ribbon that connects the Quirinale in Porta Pia, not far from the historic breach that brought down the pope king. Over the course of almost a century and a half, many adjustments have been introduced, but the structure has not changed, just as the long marble corridors overlooking the courtyard have remained intact, crossed in ritual silence, almost without touching the waxed floors. tangerines of the accounts. The turbulent 1970s saw noisy trade union delegations and processions of beggars pass by. Now the former remain outside, diverted to the Ministry of Labor, the others have different ways to ask for prebends.