Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II
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The Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II (National Monument of Victor Emmanuel II) or Altare della Patria (Altar of the Fatherland) or "Il Vittoriano" is a monument to honour Victor Emmanuel, the first king of a unified Italy. It is located in Rome, Italy. It occupies a site between the Piazza Venezia and the Capitoline Hill. The monument was designed by Giuseppe Sacconi in 1895; sculpture for it was parceled out to established sculptors all over Italy.[1] It was inaugurated in 1911 and completed in 1935.[2]
The monument, "chopped with terrible brutality into the immensely complicated fabric of the hill",[3] is built of pure white marble from Botticino, Brescia, and features majestic stairways, tall Corinthian columns, fountains, a huge equestrian sculpture of Victor Emmanuel and two statues of the goddess Victoria riding on quadrigas. The structure is 135 m (443 ft) wide and 70 m (230 ft) high. If the quadrigae and winged victories are included, the height is to 81 m (266 ft).[2] The base of the structure houses the museum of Italian Reunification.[2][4]
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[edit] Unknown soldier
The monument holds the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier with an eternal flame, built under the statue of Italy after World War I following an idea of General Giulio Douhet. The body of the unknown soldier was chosen from amongst 11 unknown remains by Maria Bergamas of Gradisca D' Isonzo whose only child was killed during World War I and whose body was never recovered. The selected unknown was transferred from Aquileia, where the ceremony with Bergamas took place to Rome in late October to early November of 1921.
[edit] Controversy
The monument was controversial since its construction destroyed a large area of the Capitoline Hill with a Medieval neighbourhood for its sake. The monument itself is often regarded as pompous and too large.[4][5][6] It is clearly visible to most of the city of Rome despite being boxy in general shape and lacking a dome or a tower.[2] The monument is also glaringly white, making it highly conspicuous amidst the generally brownish buildings surrounding it, and its stacked, crowded nature has lended it several derogatory nicknames. Romans sometimes refer to the structure by a variety of irreverent slang expressions, such as "Zuppa Inglese", "the wedding cake", and "the false teeth", while Americans liberating Rome in 1944 labeled it "the typewriter", a nickname also adopted by the locals. Despite all this criticism, the monument still attracts a large number of visitors The opening as a public forum and as a view point over the City core was strongly fostered by the former President of the Republic Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, letting people familiarize with the huge landmark, causing the Vittoriano to gain a new popular, yet not fully critical, reputation.
[edit] Media
It was featured in the 2003 movie The Core where it collapses due to being struck by huge bolts of lightning.
[edit] Gallery
 The monument at sunset |
 The Tyrrhenian Fountain at the Monument of Victor Emmanuel II |
.jpg/90px-Veup(1).jpg) plaster model for the quadriga, by Carlo Fontana and Paolo Bartolini |
[edit] References
- ^ Sandra Berresford, Italian Memorial Sculpture, 1820-1940: A Legacy of Love56.
- ^ a b c d Vidotto, Vittorio. "The Invention of Two Capital Cities. Archaeology and Public Spaces in Athens and Rome" (PDF). . European Association for Urban History Retrieved on 2007-02-26.
- ^ Peter Davey, "Outrage - the Vittorio Emanuele II monument in Rome", The Architectural Review (October 1996).
- ^ a b d'Aquino, Niccolo (Feb 2001). "Capitals: Rome". Europe (403): 36–38.
- ^ Atkinson, David; Cosgrove, Denis (Mar. 1998). "Urban Rhetoric and Embodied Identities: City, Nation, and Empire at the Vittorio Emanuele II Monument in Rome, 1870-1945". Annals of the Association of American Geographers 88 (1): 28–49. doi:.
- ^ Peter Davey (Oct 1996). "Outrage". The Architectural Review 200 (1196): 25.
[edit] External links
