Living in Rome, I’m always shocked when tourists tell me “Isn’t the Victor Emmanuel Monument in Piazza Venezia gorgeous?” No. It’s not gorgeous. It’s horribly ugly and I wish it would just go away.
I guess I sounded like a tourist when we had dinner at Solveig’s house in Reykjavik. I kept going on and on about how much I loved the cathedral, the Hallgrimskirkja. After babbling on about it’s clean lines, stark silhouette and monumental presence, Solveig’s husband, Gunnar, finally said “Hmm…well, we think it is kind of ugly.”
There you have it. One tourist’s Hallgrimskirkja is another one’s Victor Emmanuel Monument.
If you’d like to know more about the church, here ya go.
I’ll just leave you with my photos. You decide. Ugly monument only an ignorant tourist could love? Or national architectural treasure too fabulous for natives to appreciate?
I was in Iceland courtesy of the Food & Fun festival, and my airfare was paid for by Iceland Air.
I don’t know about the church, but your photos are beautiful.
Looks beautiful to me
I agree with you on both counts…yes to this church and no to the Victor Emmanuel!
Well, it’s not as bad as the “water company” building (Torre Agbar) in Barcelona that ruined the skyline!
Why are water company buildings always so imposing?
That is a fascinating looking structure- like something out of Lord of the Rings, a sort of cross between the Empire State building and a radio from the 1920’s and a rocket! But I think that the Vittorio Emanuele Monument is one of the most fascinating modern buildings in Rome- a reaction against the Vatican as Papal power had just been ended, and showing the unification of the previously warring Papal and non-Papal states. It has no symbolism of the Roman Catholic religion, but pays homage to the pagan foundations of Rome, human physical, artistic and scientific achievements and is also architecturally based on the famous ancient Temple to the Goddess Fortuna, which was the largest pagan temple in all of Italy, the remains of which can be seen in Prenestina.
Fascinating, maybe. Yet still, I think it’s a poorly designed building from an urban planning and architectural point of view.