Saturday, July 14, 2012

Monument to the Frejus tunnel

Piazza Statuto is one of the most important squares of Turin. It is located in the center of the city.
It has an elongated shape and depart from it, among others, is Corso Francia, which in Roman times was the initial stretch of the road for the Gauls, and Via Garibaldi, which was the decumanus maximus of the Roman colony, the oldest street of Turin, once was known as the via Dora Grossa.




In the center there is an imposing monument, dedicated to the creation of the Frejus Tunnel rail. The monument, designed by Count Marcello Panissera of Veglio, president of the Academy of Fine Arts, and inaugurated in 1879, consists of a pyramid of huge boulders coming right from the excavation of the tunnel, the pyramid is topped by a winged angel, under which there are the marble figures of the Titans killed. The whole is an allegory of the triumph of reason over brute force, in the positivist spirit of the age in which it was made​​. However, this original meaning is superimposed by another, that is the monument celebrates the suffering endured by the miners of the time to carry out the work.

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