Victor Emmanuel II Monument

Victor Emmanuel II National Monument
Victor Emmanuel II National Monument
Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II
	View from Piazza Venezia
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Alternative names	"Mole del Vittoriano"; "Il Vittoriano"; "Altare della Patria"
General information
Type	National monument
Architectural style	Neoclassical with eclectic influences
Location	Rome, Italy
Address	Piazza Venezia
Coordinates	41°53′41″N 12°28′59″E / 41.89472°N 12.48306°E
Construction started	1885
Completed	1935
Inaugurated	4 June 1911
Owner	Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities
Height	81 m (266 ft)
Dimensions
Other dimensions	135 m (443 ft) across x 130 m (427 ft) deep
Technical details
Floor area	717,000 m2 (7,717,724 sq ft)
Lifts/elevators	1
Grounds	1.755 ha (4.34 acres)
Design and construction
Architect(s)	Giuseppe Sacconi

The Victor Emmanuel II National Monument (Italian: Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II), also known as the Vittoriano or Altare della Patria ("Altar of the Fatherland"), is a large national monument built between 1885 and 1935 to honour Victor Emmanuel II, the first king of a unified Italy, in Rome, Italy.^[2] It occupies a site between the Piazza Venezia and the Capitoline Hill. The monument was realized by Giuseppe Sacconi.

From an architectural perspective, it was conceived as a modern forum, an agora on three levels connected by stairways and dominated by a portico characterized by a colonnade. The complex process of national unity and liberation from foreign domination carried out by King Victor Emmanuel II of Savoy, to whom the monument is dedicated, has a great symbolic and representative value, being architecturally and artistically centred on the Italian unification—for this reason the Vittoriano is considered one of the national symbols of Italy.

It also preserves the Altar of the Fatherland (Italian: Altare della Patria), first an altar of the goddess Roma, then also a shrine of the Italian Unknown Soldier, thus adopting the function of a secular temple consecrated to Italy. Because of its great representative value, the entire Vittoriano is often called the Altare della Patria, although the latter constitutes only a part of the monument.

It is currently managed by the Polo Museale del Lazio and is owned by the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities.

^ Cite error: The named reference treccanivittoriano was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Atkinson, David; Cosgrove, Denis (March 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:10.1111/1467-8306.00083.

[treccanivittoriano-1] Cite error: The named reference treccanivittoriano was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[:0-2] Atkinson, David; Cosgrove, Denis (March 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:10.1111/1467-8306.00083.

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