Formia War Memorial

About

Formia War Memorial (Italian: monumento ai caduti di Formia) is an Italian war memorial erected in 1926 to commemorate the dead of the First World War and earlier conflicts. It stands in the Piazza della Vittoria, in the centre of Formia, a town on the coast of the Province of Latina beside the Tyrrhenian Sea, about 150 km (93 mi) southeast of Rome and 100 km (62 mi) northwest of Naples The 5.7 m (19 ft) high structure comprises a monumental bronze statue mounted on a tall white marble pedestal, standing on a plinth with two steps. The bronze statue entitled Sacraficio depicts a soldier, larger than life size, wearing an Adrian helmet, and trousers with puttees and boots, but bare-chested, standing with both arms raised, as if offering himself in sacrifice.

The pedestal has a carved decorative frieze around its top edge, and the front has a carving of a female figure bearing a palm frond and holding a laurel branch over a dedicatory inscription "AI CADUTI / PER LA INDIPENDENZA E LA GRANDEZZA DELLA PATRIA // FORMIA / ORGOGLIOSA E RICCONOSCENTE" ("To the fallen / for the independence and greatness of the fatherland // Formia / proud and recognising"). On the rear are the inscriptions...