The Monument to Victor Emanuel II is a huge monument built to honor unified Italy's first king. For the same reason, it is called the Altar to the Fatherland. For most of its history, Italy was not a single country but a conglomerate of city-states and later entire swaths of territory controlled by foreign kings and emperors. During the middle of the 19th century, popular movements and the rise of several leaders, including Garibaldi, led to the gradual unification of the country and the creation of a joint Italian sirit. At the end of that process, Vittorio Emanuele II became its first king. More trials and tribulations followed over the next 100 years, but this major step resulted in what we know as modern Italy. Located at one end of the Roman Forum, between the Capitoline Hill and Piazza Venezia, this semicircular monument consistat of a very wide base, that houses the museum of Italian Unification, a huge broad marble two-sided staircase and a third level which is a huge colonnade. At the top, there are two quadrigas (four horse-drawn carriages) driven by the goddess Victoria. The monument also holds the tomb of the Unknown Soldier. This monument is visible from several parts of Rome and continues to be controversial because of its location impinging the Roman ruins of antiquity and the architectural mixture of styles.
Altar of the Fatherland - Roma, Italy - Piazza Venezia
The Monument to Victor Emanuel II is a huge monument built to honor unified Italy's first king. For the same reason, it is called the Altar to the Fatherland. For most of its history, Italy was not a single country but a conglomerate of city-states and later entire swaths of territory controlled by foreign kings and emperors. During the middle of the 19th century, popular movements and the rise of several leaders, including Garibaldi, led to the gradual unification of the country and the creation of a joint Italian sirit. At the end of that process, Vittorio Emanuele II became its first king. More trials and tribulations followed over the next 100 years, but this major step resulted in what we know as modern Italy. Located at one end of the Roman Forum, between the Capitoline Hill and Piazza Venezia, this semicircular monument consistat of a very wide base, that houses the museum of Italian Unification, a huge broad marble two-sided staircase and a third level which is a huge colonnade. At the top, there are two quadrigas (four horse-drawn carriages) driven by the goddess Victoria. The monument also holds the tomb of the Unknown Soldier. This monument is visible from several parts of Rome and continues to be controversial because of its location impinging the Roman ruins of antiquity and the architectural mixture of styles.
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