Shame, did you know that the Altar of the Fatherland is one of our national symbols?

Rome, August 2017, this year as every year is full of tourists from all over the world. Among the most popular destinations you can not go to see, photograph and admire the Altar of the Fatherland. A majestic monument that collects, in his sculptures and drawings, the history of the unification of Italy. It also guards the sacellum of the unknown soldier, the unidentified soldier who symbolizes all our fellow countrymen who lost their lives in war and lost their identity, because no one ever managed to find their bodies. The Altar of the Fatherland has, therefore, a very high institutional and patriotic meaning unique and undisputed throughout the country, from the Alps to Lampedusa.

Lucifer's fault, the fault of the drought, the fault of the ordinances to combat the water emergency, someone thought well to reduce / remove the irrigation of the grassy portions of Piazza Venezia and surrounding areas. The result? A bleak spectacle. A cathedral, the Altare della Patria with the Colosseum behind, with yellowed and dry grass. What a shame!

A country of G7, G20 etc., which fails to water some portions of the lawn, even the lawn, just the most important that is the visiting card of our country, along with the whole area of the Roman center. Shame, Shame and Shame!

The history and meaning of the Vittoriano and the Altare della Patria are reported to those who have forgotten it, or to those who have never studied or read it.

By Massimiliano D'Elia

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The Victorian

The name derives from Vittorio Emanuele II, the first king of Italy.

At his death, in the 1878, it was decided to raise a monument that would celebrate the Father of the Fatherland and with him the entire Risorgimento season.

The Victorian must be an open space for the citizens. The monumental complex was inaugurated by Vittorio Emanuele III on 4 June 1911.

It was the culminating moment of the International Exposition that celebrated the fifty years of a united Italy.

In the monumental complex, under the statue of the Goddess Roma, the 4 of the 1921 was buried, the corpse of the The Unknown Soldier in memory of the many soldiers who died in the war and whose name or place of burial is unknown.

The Altar of the Fatherland

The Altar of the Fatherland is only a portion of the complex, born from an idea of the 1906.
The competition was won by the Brescia sculptor Angelo Zanelli.

The newsstand at the center of the Abbey of Patria with the statue of the goddess Rome and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Left Bas Relief:

Industry: from the long beam, supported by the homo faber, hangs the heavy anvil. A female hand rests on the anvil an oak crown, symbol of strength. The winged genius of Labor, leaning on human labor, is about to rise victorious on the great triumphal plow. Agriculture: rearing, harvesting, harvesting and irrigation.

Bas-relief on the right:

Three female figures offer honorary crowns to Rome, followed by labars, the insignia of the legions. On the triumphal chariot are the victorious genius of the Love of Fatherland and the Hero, leaning on the great sword of the Titans. Two women hold their cloaks in their hands. Also in this cycle we find the motif of the long beam, from which hangs the brazier of the sacred fire.

The Values of Italians

Six groups represent allegories of the civic values of the Italian people.

Two are in golden bronze and four in botticino, the Brescia marble covering the monument.

Strength, Law, Concord, Action, Thought, Sacrifice

The cities and regions of Italy

Regions and cities are central elements of the complex.
Each of the statues of the sixteen Italian regions of the late nineteenth century was entrusted to a sculptor of that region. The statues of the fourteen cities that were capitals or maritime republics were by Eugenio Maccagnani.

Ferrara, Turin, Urbino, Amalfi, Naples, Bologna, Florence, Venice, Genoa, Palermo, Pisa, Ravenna, Mantova, Milan

"UNIT OF THE PATRIA", "LIBERTY OF THE CITIZENS"

The central theme of the monument is the two inscriptions on the propylene:
"PATRIAE UNITATI" "CIVIUM LIBERTATI", "Unity of the Fatherland" "To the freedom of the citizens", each post almost as a commentary on the two squares of Carlo Fontana and Paolo Bartolini.

The fountains of the two Mari

The fountain on the left, by Emilio Quadrelli, represents the Adriatic Sea, facing East, with the Lion of San Marco. On the right the Tyrrhenian Sea, by Pietro Canonica, with the she-wolf of Rome and the mermaid Partenope.