If the city of Rome has a center, it’s probably Piazza Venezia, today a large traffic circle that is surrounded by bits of history on every side. The piazza is the terminus for Via del Corso, a popular shopping street that was also the main road leading into Rome from the north in antiquity, but it is also flanked by a fifteenth-century palace, the Palazzo Venezia, built by a Venetian Cardinal and many centuries later occupied by Mussolini, as well as a church, San Marco, that was founded in the fourth century AD.
However, the most prominent monument that borders Piazza Venezia is a brand new one. Inaugurated in 1911 and completed in 1925, the Victor Emmanuel Monument -also called the Altar of the Fatherland and disparagingly known as the wedding cake and the typewriter for its shape and its colossal mass – was built to honor King Victor Emmanuel who ruled the newly united Italy from 1861-1878 and to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the new Italian state.
The monument is constructed of pure white marble and features majestic stairways, tall Corinthian columns, fountains, a huge equestrian sculpture of Victor Emmanuel, two statues of vicotry goddesses riding on quadrigas (four horse chariots), and a tomb to an unknown soldier. The structure is 490 feet wide and 230 feet high. If the quadrigae and winged victories are included, the height becomes 265 feet.
Though for several years it has been possible to climb up the stairs that form the front facade of the Victor Emmanuel monument in order to gain views across the city, on 2 June 2007, the terrace of the quadrigae atop the monument was opened to the public amid much political fanfare.
“We find ourselves in one of the most extraordinary places in the world,” said Italian President Giorgio Napolitano when he unveiled the newly restored terrace, while Minister of Culture Francesco Rutelli added his own comments, suggesting that the monument’s early-twentieth-century designers meant for the public to have access to the terrace of the quadrigae:
This panoramic terrace was always supposed to be open. Then, unfortunately, they forgot about it. People only got up here when the unknown soldier’s body was brought here in 1921 and for the inauguration of the chariots in 1927. Now all that has changed, thanks to the project launched by President (Carlo Azeglio) Ciampi in 2002. The view takes your breath away. It’s better than the Eiffel Tower.
Access is by means of a glass elevator that hangs on the back of the monument. And, though the Roman public has protested that the elevator is unsightly (and we’d have to agree), we decided to check out the new attraction in order to take in the 360 degree view across Rome. Most spectacular on the cool, clear evening that we visited was the view across the Forum, the Palatine, and the Colosseum, with vistas reaching off to the Castelli Romani (or Alban Hills) to the southeast of the city.
Lift tickets currently cost 7 euro each. The elevator runs from 9:30am to 7:30pm (though most likely those hours become shorter as it begins to get dark earlier.)
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