Altare della Patria
Altare della Patria (Altar of the Fatherland)
Altare della Patria (The altar of the Fatherland), is also referred to as the Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II (National Monument to King Victor Emmanuel II) or “Il Vittoriano”. It is an edifice erected in honor of Victor Emmanuel, the first king of (unified Italy), and it is nesteld between Piazza Venezia and Capitoline Hill.in Rome, Italy.
The eclectic structure was designed by Giuseppe Sacconi in 1885; sculpture for it was parceled out to established sculptors all over Italy, such as Leonardo Bistolfi and Angelo Zanelli.[1] It was inaugurated in 1911 and completed in 1925.[2]
The Vittoriano features stairways, Corinthian columns, fountains, an 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] It has a total area of 17,000 square meters.
The base of the structure houses the museum of Italian Unification.[2][3] In 2007, a panoramic elevator was added to the structure, allowing visitors to ride up to the roof for 360 degree views of Rome.
As a deliberate decision to increase the feeling of national pride surrounding the project, a number of prominent Italian sculptors were assigned work on parts of the monument. These included established artists such as Angelo Zanelli and Leonardo Bistolfi. The monument was inaugurated in 1911, although work was not finally completed until 1925.
Unknown soldier
The monument holds the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier with an eternal flame, built under the statue of goddess Roma after World War I following an idea of General Giulio Douhet. The body of the unknown soldier was chosen on 26 October 1921 from among 11 unknown remains by Maria Bergamas, a woman from Gradisca d’Isonzo whose only child was killed during World War I. Her son’s body was never recovered. The selected unknown was transferred from Aquileia, where the ceremony with Bergamas had taken place, to Rome and buried in a state funeral on 4 November 1921.
Military colours
The flags of disbanded units of the Italian Armed Forces, as well as the flags of ships stricken from the naval register of the Italian Navy are stored at the Vittoriano in the so-called Shrine of the Flags (Sacrario delle Bandiere). The oldest flag on display is the flag of the 19th-century frigate Giuseppe Garibaldi.
Controversy
The monument, the largest in Rome, was controversial since its construction destroyed a large area of the Capitoline Hill with a Medieval neighbourhood for its sake.[5] The monument itself is often regarded as conspicuous,[5] pompous and too large.[3][6][7]
It has been described as being “chopped with terrible brutality into the immensely complicated fabric of the hill.”[8] The structure is not designed in a “Roman” style, but is a mingling of Greek and Teutonic styles, with inspiration drawn from the German architect Leo von Klenze.[5]
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, built from “corpse-white marble” imported from Botticino in Brescia making it highly conspicuous amidst the generally brownish buildings surrounding it,[5] and its stacked, crowded nature has lent it several nicknames. Foreign people sometimes refer to the structure by a variety of nicknames, such as torta nuziale (“the wedding cake”), whereas Romans commonly call it “the typewriter”, although zuppa Inglese (” English soup”, a type of dessert)[9] and pisciatoio nazionale (“national urinal”) are also used.[5] Despite all this criticism, the monument still attracts a large number of visitors.
Sources:
Wikipedia (http://wikipedia.com)
Famous Wonders (http://famouswonders.com)
