From an architectural point of view 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 Vittorio Emanuele II of Savoy, to whom the monument is dedicated, has a great symbolic and representative value, being architecturally and artistically centered 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, first an altar of the goddess Rome and then also a shrine of the Italian Unknown Soldier, thus adopting the function of a lay temple consecrated to Italy. Because of its great representative value, the entire Vittoriano is often erroneously called the Altar of the Fatherland, although the latter constitutes only a part of it.

 

Its design is a neoclassical interpretation of the Roman Forum. It features stairways, Corinthian columns, fountains, an equestrian sculpture of Victor Emmanuel II, and two statues of the goddess Victoria riding on quadrigas. The base houses the museum of Italian Unification and in 2007 a lift was added to the structure, allowing visitors to ride up to the roof for 360-degree views of Rome. The structure is 135 m (443 ft) wide and 70 m (230 ft) high. If the quadrigae and winged victories are included, the height reaches 81 m (266 ft). It has a total area of 17,550 square metres.

 

One of the architecturally predominant elements of the Vittoriano are the external staircases, which are constituted in the complex by 243 steps, and the portico situated on the top of the monument, which is inserted between two lateral propylae. Another architecturally relevant element is the large Corinthian colonnade that characterizes the portico and the two propylaea.

 

The allegories of the monument mostly represent the virtues and feelings, very often rendered as personifications, also according to the canons of the Neoclassical style, which animated the Italians during the Italian unification, or from the revolutions of 1820 to the capture of Rome (1870), through which national unity was achieved : the complex process of unification undertaken by Victor Emmanuel II throughout the second half of the 19th Century. For this reason the Italians gave him the epithet of Father of the Fatherland (Italian: Padre della Patria).

 

The monument, on the whole, appears as a sort of marble covering of the northern slope of the Campidoglio hill: it was therefore thought of as a place where it is possible to make an uninterrupted patriotic walk (the path does not in fact have an architectural end, given that the entrances to the highest part are two, one for each propylaeum) among the works present, which almost all have allegorical meanings linked to the history of Italy.

 

It is regarded as a national symbol of Italy and every year it hosts important national celebrations. The largest annual celebrations are Liberation Day (April 25th), Republic Day (Italian: "Festa della Repubblica Italiana") (June 2nd), and Armed Forces Day (Italian: "Giornata dell'Unità Nazionale e delle Forze Armate") (November 4th). During these celebrations, the Italian President and the highest government officials pay tribute to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and those who died in the line of duty by laying a laurel wreath.

 

Following the death of Victor Emmanuel II in 1878, the Italian government approved the construction of a monumental complex on the Northern side of Rome’s Capitol Hill. The monument would celebrate the legacy of the first king of Italy and would become a symbol of national patriotism. The rough draft of eclectic structure was designed by Ettore Ferrari and Pio Piacentini in 1884, while the detail project was realized by Giuseppe Sacconi in 1885.

 

The project by Ettore Ferrari and Pio Piacentini was inspired by the great Hellenistic sanctuaries, such as the Pergamon Altar and the Sanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia in Palestrina. The Vittoriano was conceived as a vast and modern forum open to citizens, situated on a sort of elevated square in the historic center of Rome organized as an agora on three levels connected by tiers, with conspicuous spaces reserved for visitors' strolling.

 

To erect the Vittoriano it was necessary, between the last months of 1884 and 1899:, to proceed with numerous expropriations and extensive demolitions of the buildings that were located in the construction site area:. The place chosen was in the heart of the historic center of Rome and was therefore occupied by ancient buildings arranged according to urban planning that dated back to the Middle Ages. This was considered necessary because the Vittoriano should have been built in the heart of the historic center of Rome, in a modern urban context, in front of a new large square (the future Piazza Venezia) which at the time was just a narrow open space in front of the Palazzo Venezia.

 

The general objective was also to make Rome a modern European capital that rivaled Berlin, Vienna, London and Paris overcoming the centuries-old pontifical town planning. In this context the Vittoriano would have been the equivalent of the Brandenburg Gate of Berlin, of the Admiralty Arch of London and of the Opéra Garnier of Paris: these buildings are in fact all united by a monumental and classical aspect that metaphorically communicates pride and the power of the nation that erected them.

 

On its summit there would have been a majestic portico characterized by a long colonnade and two imposing propylaea, one dedicated to the "unity of the homeland" and the other to the "freedom of the citizens", concepts metaphorically linked, as already mentioned, to the figure of Vittorio Emanuele II: it would then become one of the symbols of the new Italy, joining the monuments of ancient Rome and those of the popes' Rome. Having then been conceived as a large public square, the Vittoriano, in addition to representing a memorial dedicated to the person of the sovereign, was invested with another role: a modern forum dedicated to the new free and united Italy.

 

Established Italian sculptors, such as Leonardo Bistolfi, Manfredo Manfredi, Giulio Monteverde, Francesco Jerace, Augusto Rivalta, Lodovico Pogliaghi, Pietro Canonica, Ettore Ximenes, Adolfo Apolloni, Mario Rutelli and Angelo Zanelli, made its sculptures nationwide.  It was inaugurated on June 4th, 1911 and completed in 1935. The partly completed monument was inaugurated on June 4th, 1911 on the occasion of the Turin International world’s fair and the 50th anniversary of Italian Unification. Construction continued throughout the first half of the 20th Century; in 1921 the body of the Italian Unknown Soldier was placed in the crypt under the statue of goddess Roma and in 1935 the monument was fully completed amidst the inauguration of the Museo Centrale del Risorgimento Italiano.

 

The decision to include an "altar" dedicated to the homeland in the Vittoriano was taken by Giuseppe Sacconi only after the planning phase, during the construction of the monument. The place and the dominant subject were immediately chosen: a large statue of the goddess Rome that would have been placed on the first terrace after the entrance to the monument, just below the equestrian statue of Vittorio Emanuele II. Thus the Altar of the Fatherland, at least initially and before the burial of the body of the Unknown Soldier, was thought of as a chapel of the deity. In this way the greatness and majesty of Rome was celebrated, elected to the role of legitimate capital of Italy. This reference was not an exception: in the Vittoriano there are numerous artistic works that recall the history of ancient Rome.

 

After the First World War the Altare della Patria was chosen to house the tomb of the Unknown Soldier, or the burial of an Italian soldier who died during the First World War whose identity remains unknown due to the serious injuries that made the body unrecognizable: just for this reason it represents all the Italian soldiers who died during the wars. The reason for his strong symbolism lies in the metaphorical transition from the figure of the soldier to that of the people and finally to that of the nation: this transition between increasingly broader and generic concepts is due to the indistinct traits of the non-identification of the soldier.

 

The Vittoriano was thus consecrated to its definitive symbolic value becoming - thanks to the call of the figure of Vittorio Emanuele II of Savoy and the presence of the Altar of the Fatherland - a lay temple metaphorically dedicated to free and united and celebrating Italy - by virtue of burial of the Unknown Soldier - sacrifice for the homeland and national ideals.

 

With the rise of Fascism in 1922, the Vittoriano became the setting for the military parades of the authoritarian regime of Benito Mussolini. After World War II, with the institution of the Italian Republic in 1946, the monument was stripped of all its Fascist symbols and reassumed its original function as a secular temple dedicated to the Italian nation and its people. Throughout the second half of the 20th century, however, its significance as a symbol of national identity started declining as the public opinion started perceiving it as a cumbersome relic representing a nation superseded by its own history. At the turn of the 21st Century, Italy’s President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi pushed for a revaluation of Italian patriotic symbols, including the Vittoriano. The monument continues to host major national parades and celebrations such as Liberation Day (April 25th), Republic Day (June 2nd), and Armed Forces Day (November 4th).

 

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 28 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.

 

Museums

Inside the Altare della Patria there are some museums dedicated to the history of Italy, especially the Risorgimento: the Central Museum of the Risorgimento with an adjoining study institute, the Flag of Italy Memorial (Sacrario delle bandiere) and an area that hosts temporary exhibitions of artistic interest, historical, sociological and cultural called "ala Brasini".