Mac Rating: 5.00 | Votes: 1 | Date: 04/06/2026 16:39:00

Towering in dazzling white marble at the foot of the Capitoline Hill in Rome, the Vittoriano, known officially as the Altare della Patria or Altar of the Fatherland, dominates the open space of Piazza Venezia. The monument was begun in 1885 and inaugurated in 1911 to mark the first king of a united Italy, Victor Emmanuel II, and the unification of the country fifty years earlier. Designed by Giuseppe Sacconi after a competition won in the early 1880s, the building was meant to symbolise the new nation in the most emphatic possible way, and its scale and gleaming Botticino marble achieve that effect to a fault, looming over much of the surrounding cityscape and provoking sharp criticism from those who felt it overwhelmed the historic centre. The colossal bronze equestrian statue of Victor Emmanuel II in the centre faces toward the unified country he came to rule, and the monument incorporates the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, eternally guarded by Italian soldiers and surmounted by an eternal flame, added in 1921 to commemorate the dead of the First World War. Within the structure the Central Museum of the Risorgimento, dedicated to the long and complicated story of Italian unification, houses paintings, documents, weapons and personal effects of the figures of the nineteenth-century independence movement, telling the story from the early uprisings to the proclamation of the kingdom. A glass elevator climbs to a panoramic terrace high on the roof, offering one of the most spectacular views of central Rome, sweeping from the ruins of the Forum and the Colosseum across the rooftops of the historic centre to the dome of Saint Peter beyond the river. Whether admired or resented for its scale, the Vittoriano has become an inseparable part of the Roman skyline, and the climb to its roof terrace, the changing of the guard at the eternal flame and the museum within all make it a worthwhile and unavoidable stop on any city tour. Nicknames for the building, including the wedding cake, the typewriter and the false teeth, have circulated in Rome since the day it opened, a reflection of the mixed feelings the monument has always inspired. Italian state ceremonies on key dates such as Republic Day on 2 June and the Anniversary of the Liberation on 25 April centre on the eternal flame, with the president and other senior officials laying wreaths in front of the tomb. The two soldiers who guard the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier change with precision on the hour, an unusual sight in a generally informal Italian capital.