On March 4, thanks to the contribution of Bulgari, the restoration of the sculptures of the Vittoriano began. The monument celebrates the birth of the Kingdom of Italy and the first king of the nation, from which it takes its name, Vittorio Emanuele II, as a central figure in the unification of the country, proclaimed on March 17, 1861. The monument, designed by the architect Giuseppe Sacconi in neoclassical style, was commissioned in January 1878 by the then Prime Minister Agostino Depretis, in the aftermath of the king’s death, to commemorate the Risorgimento period and national unity. The construction works started in 1885 but were not completed until 1925, due to delays and technical problems. In 1921 the monument was also enriched with further patriotic significance by hosting the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (“Milite Ignoto”), the tomb dedicated to soldiers never recognized dead during the First World War and remained unburied. The Vittoriano to date is one of the symbols of Rome in the world and was also the setting for the 1987 film The Belly of an Architect by Peter Greenaway.

Directed by Edith Gabrielli and executed by Susanna Sarmatil, the restoration work – which will be part of a larger project, which involves the refurbishment of all the Victorian plants – will focus on the marble sculptures of the main façade, restoring, in particular, the golden finish of the bronze elements, fundamental point of the entire project, and returning the full readability of the figures: the Adriatic Sea by Emilio Quadrelli, the Tyrrhenian Sea by Pietro Canonica, the gilded bronze sculptures depicting The Thought of Giulio Monteverde and The Action of Francesco Jerace, and the flagpoles of Gaetano Vannicola with the Victories of Edoardo Rubino and Edoardo De Albertis. The works will end on 25 September this year and the construction site will resume the experience that has seen the protagonist of the Altare della Patria, will then be open, to show tourists and citizens live operators and also allow walking on scaffolding during guided tours. In addition, a video diary of the restoration will be published every week, in which the progress of the work will be shown on the site of VIVE, the Institute that manages the heritage of the Vittoriano and Palazzo Venezia.

Cover image by Leonhard Niederwimmer on Unsplash.