The area was originally chosen in the 1930s as the site for the 1942 World's Fair which Benito Mussolini planned to open to celebrate twenty years of Fascism, the letters EUR standing for Esposizione Universale Roma ("Rome Universal Exposition").

[2] The complex was planned to be home to a World's fair to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the March on Rome and of the beginning of the Fascist era.

[6] However, the Roman authorities decided that EUR could be the basis of an out-of-town business district, which other capitals did not begin planning until decades later (for example, London Docklands and La Défense near Paris).

The design was inspired, according to the fascist ideology, by Roman Imperial town planning,[6] with modern elements which came from Italian rationalism, the result being a sort of simplified neoclassicism.

The project develops over orthogonal axes and large and stately buildings, built mainly of limestone, tuff and marble, traditional materials associated with Roman Empire architecture.

The most representative building at EUR, and the symbol of this architectural style, is the Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana (1938–1943), an iconic project which has since become known as the "Colosseo Quadrato" (Square Colosseum).

The large building fronting the square was never finished, but after the war the structures already constructed were used for the "Skyscraper Italy (Grattacielo Italia)" by Luigi Mattioni.

[12] There are a lot of schools in EUR such as "Liceo Scientifico Statale Stanislao Cannizzaro",[13] Liceo Ginnasio Statale "Francesco Vivona",[14] another one is also ITC "Vincenzo Arangio Ruiz";[15] those three are all public schools, while there are also private institutes like: "Istituto Massimiliano Massimo"[16] and Highlands Institute[17] The Fascist architecture of EUR was prominently featured in Michelangelo Antonioni's 1962 film L'Eclisse and Bernardo Bertolucci's 1970 film The Conformist.

The location was also used as the headquarters of Mayflower Industries in the 1991 movie Hudson Hawk and served as a backdrop for scenes from the 1999 film adaptation of Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus.