Venice is generally associated with the romantic image of a medieval city crisscrossed by canals, rather than that of a modern metropolis. Numerous large-scale projects during the fascist era led the city down this path. Rationalist architecture played a crucial role in the architectural implementation. The modern buildings that emerged in the brief period of five years between 1933 and 1938 bear witness to the first intrusion of modernity in Venice. It is demonstrated that the enforcement of fascism in Venice and the realization of the idea of a Greater Venice in the 1930s created the conditions for the emergence of rationalist architecture in the city, which reflects the broad spectrum of fascist ideology both in content and form.