Bolzano Victory Monument
The Victory Monument is a monument in Bolzano, northern Italy, erected on the personal orders of Mussolini after the annexation of the South Tyrol after World War I. The 19 metre wide Victory Gate was designed by architect Marcello Piacentini and substituted the former Austrian Kaiserjäger monument, torn down in 1926–27. Its construction in Fascist style, displaying lictorial pillars, was dedicated to the "Martyrs of World War I".
The following Latin script can be seen on the façade:
- HIC PATRIAE FINES SISTE SIGNA / HINC CETEROS EXCOLVIMVS LINGVA LEGIBVS ARTIBVS
- Here at the border of the fatherland set down the banner. From this point on we educated the others with language, law and culture.
The monument was inaugurated on 12 July 1928 by King Victor Emmanuel III.
The inscription, referring to Roman imperial history, was seen as provocative by many German-speaking people living in the province of South Tyrol. On the day of the inauguration there was a counter-demonstration with 10,000 people in Innsbruck.[1]
Today, the monument still is a focal point of the tensions between the Italian and German speaking communities in Bolzano, and it is fenced off to protect it from defacement.
Only in 2014, by a joint decision taken by the Italian Ministry of Culture, the South Tyrolean Provincial Government and the Municipality of Bolzano, the Monument has been reopened to the public along with a permanent exhibition (under the title BZ '18–'45: one monument, one city, two dictatorships) focussing on the history of the monument, within the context of Fascism and the Nazi occupation.[2]
References
- ↑ Marilena Pinzger: Steinernes Zeichen des Imperiums. University of Vienna, 2011, p. 92
- ↑ "Faschistisches Siegesdenkmal entpolitisiert". Der Standard (Vienna). 25 July 2014. Retrieved 30 November 2015.
Coordinates: 46°30′02″N 11°20′42″E / 46.50056°N 11.34500°E
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