Mac Rating: 5.00 | Votes: 1 | Date: 04/06/2026 17:38:00

Set at the centre of a large traffic circle at the junction of Phaya Thai, Ratchawithi, Phahonyothin and Ratchathewi Roads in the central Ratchathewi district of Bangkok, the Victory Monument is one of the most distinctive individual landmarks of the modern Thai capital and the principal symbolic monument of the wider Thai military tradition. The monument was completed on 24 June 1941 and commemorates the Thai military victory in the brief 1940-1941 Franco-Thai War. The Franco-Thai War of 1940-1941 was a brief border conflict between the Kingdom of Thailand under the wartime nationalist government of Field Marshal Plaek Phibunsongkhram and the French Vichy government over the disputed territories of western Cambodia and southern Laos. The conflict ran between October 1940 and January 1941, with the Thai forces achieving substantial early successes and the eventual mediation by Japan resulting in the formal transfer of approximately fifty-four thousand square kilometres of territory from French Indochina to Thailand under the Treaty of Tokyo of 9 May 1941. The decision to construct the new monument was taken by Field Marshal Phibunsongkhram immediately after the formal end of the brief conflict in May 1941. The construction was carried out between June 1941 and June 1942 to designs by the Italian-Thai architect Corrado Feroci, who had Thai-nationalised as Silpa Bhirasri. The monument was inaugurated on 24 June 1941, the eighth anniversary of the Siamese Revolution that had ended the absolute monarchy and established the modern Thai constitutional system. The monument consists of a tall central obelisk reaching fifty metres in height, surrounded by five life-size bronze figures representing the five branches of the Thai armed forces at the time of the original 1941 dedication. The five figures represent the army, navy, air force, police and the civilian militia, each shown in the standard 1940s military uniform of the relevant service. The combined design represents one of the principal examples of the wider Asian nationalist monumental architecture of the late 1930s and early 1940s. The wider monument circle is one of the principal transport interchanges of central Bangkok and is the principal point of departure for the famous minibus and songthaew services to the various suburban and provincial destinations of the wider central Thai region. The famous Victory Monument bus terminal immediately adjacent to the monument is one of the principal informal long-distance bus stations of the central capital. The BTS Skytrain Victory Monument station opened in 1999 and provides direct access to the wider central Bangkok rail network.