Originally built under the Fascist government of Italy in the 1930s to be the seat of the Ministry of Italian Africa, the building was repurposed after World War II to be the headquarters of the then-new United Nations' agricultural agency, the FAO.

The building is located the in one of the most scenic parts of Rome, southeast of the Aventine Hill, and overlooking the Baths of Caracalla and the Circus Maximus.

[1][2] The Italian State endowed to the building the right of extraterritoriality, and rented it to FAO for the symbolic rate of one US dollar, to be paid yearly in advance.

[1] In 1937, after the invasion of Ethiopia, Italian army specialists had brought to Rome the second longest Stele among the many existing in Axum.

The 4th-century monolith, which in Ethiopia lay for centuries on the ground and was broken in several pieces, was erected in front of the area designated to host the Ministry of Italian Africa building, in order to show the usage of the new complex.