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Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II
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The Vittoriano has been erected to honour Victor Emmanuel II, the first king of a unified Italy, and often it is wrongly identified with the Altar of the Fatherland, that constitutes only a part of the monumental complex. Its construction destroyed a large area of the Capitoline Hill with a Medieval neighbourhood, between 1885 and 1888. The monument was inaugurated by the king Victor Emmanuel III in 1911, in occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of Italian Reunification and it is today the symbol of national unity.
The building is pompous and very large and has a dynamic and complicated structure: the long stairway goes up to the Altar of the Fatherland, where there is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, with an eternal flame, built under the statue representing Rome. The body of the unknown soldier was chosen amongst the unknown bodies of italian soldiers died during World War I and buried in the monument in 1921.
Going up you can admire the big Equestrian statue representing Victor Emmanuel II and you can reach the neoclassical porch, from where you can go inside the monument, where you can visit the Sacrario delle Bandiere, a collection of flags and other relics of the different wars in which the Italian Army fought. Today it is possible moreover to go up till the terrace on the roof, where there are two statues of the goddess Victoria riding on quadrigas: from the terrace you can enjoy a magnificent view over the city.
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