Avenida de Pío XII
Honors Pope Pius XII, Eugenio Pacelli, who led the Catholic Church between 1939 and 1958.
The Avenida de Pío XII recalls Eugenio Pacelli, the Roman who in 1939 became Pope Pius XII and led the Church until 1958, in the middle of the Second World War. In 1950 he proclaimed the dogma of the Assumption of Mary.
His figure remains disputed: his public silence in the face of the Nazi extermination drew reproaches that still linger, and not even the opening of his archives in 2020 closed the debate. The Line 9 metro station running beneath the avenue bears his name.