The story of this place
Rising above Piazza Venezia, this colossal monument in gleaming white Botticino marble honours Victor Emmanuel II, the first king of a united Italy. Begun in 1885 and inaugurated in 1911 for the 50th anniversary of unification, its sheer scale and bright stone—clashing with Rome's ancient brick and travertine—earned mocking nicknames like 'the wedding cake' and 'the typewriter.' Its construction demolished a swathe of the medieval city on the Capitoline slope. Since 1921 it has held the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, guarded around the clock, with an eternal flame honouring Italy's war dead. From the balcony of the adjacent Palazzo Venezia, Mussolini harangued crowds in the piazza below throughout the Fascist era.