The Obelisk of Marconi, or Obelisk of EUR, is an

obelisk An obelisk (; , diminutive of (') ' spit, nail, pointed pillar') is a tall, slender, tapered monument with four sides and a pyramidal or pyramidion top. Originally constructed by Ancient Egyptians and called ''tekhenu'', the Greeks used th ...

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

(Italy), counted among the most modern in the city together with the Obelisco Novecento (by

Arnaldo Pomodoro Arnaldo Pomodoro (born 23 June 1926) is an Italian sculptor. He was born in Morciano, Romagna, and lives and works in Milan. His brother, Giò Pomodoro (1930–2002) was also a sculptor. Pomodoro designed a controversial fiberglass crucifix f ...

) and the obelisks of the

Foro Italico Foro Italico is a sports complex in Rome, Italy, on the slopes of Monte Mario. It was built between 1928 and 1938 as the Foro Mussolini (literally Benito Mussolini, Mussolini's Forum (Roman), Forum) under the design of Enrico Del Debbio and, lat ...

, Villa Torlonia and

Villa Medici The Villa Medici () is a sixteenth-century Italian Mannerist villa and an architectural complex with 7-hectare Italian garden, contiguous with the more extensive Borghese gardens, on the Pincian Hill next to Trinità dei Monti in the historic ...

. A work of the sculptor Arturo Dazzi, it is dedicated to the physicist, inventor and senator

Guglielmo Marconi Guglielmo Giovanni Maria Marconi, 1st Marquess of Marconi ( ; ; 25 April 1874 – 20 July 1937) was an Italian electrical engineer, inventor, and politician known for his creation of a practical radio wave-based Wireless telegraphy, wireless tel ...

History

The work was commissioned in 1939 by the

Ministry of Popular Culture The Ministry of Popular Culture (, commonly abbreviated to MinCulPop) was a ministry of the Italian government from 1937 to 1944. History It was established by the Fascist government in 1922 as the ''Press Office of the Presidency of the Counci ...

to the sculptor Arturo Dazzi from

Carrara Carrara ( ; ; , ) is a town and ''comune'' in Tuscany, in central Italy, of the province of Massa and Carrara, and notable for the white or blue-grey Carrara marble, marble quarried there. It is on the Carrione River, some Boxing the compass, ...

to decorate Piazza Imperiale – which, according to the project of the 1942 World's fair of Rome, should have been located in the center of the newborn quarter – and to commemorate the physicist and inventor Guglielmo Marconi (who had died 2 years earlier). With the entry of Italy into the

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

in 1940, the works were suddenly interrupted, even if Dazzi had already completed the first two registers, carved in

high relief High may refer to: Science and technology * Height * High (atmospheric), a high-pressure area * High (computability), a quality of a Turing degree, in computability theory * High (tectonics), in geology an area where relative tectonic uplift t ...

Carrara marble Carrara marble, or Luna marble (''marmor lunense'') to the Romans, is a type of white or blue-grey marble popular for use in sculpture and building decor. It has been quarried since Roman times in the mountains just outside the city of Carrara ...

. In 1951 work resumed, despite the intention of the Ministry of Public Works, chaired by Salvatore Aldisio, to demolish the structure. In 1953, on the occasion of an Agricultural Exhibition held in EUR, the sculptor refused to cover the reinforced concrete structure with temporary panels of

gesso A restored gesso panel representing St. Martin of Tours, from St. Michael and All Angels Church, Lyndhurst, Hampshire Gesso (; 'chalk', from the , from ), also known as "glue gesso" or "Italian gesso", is a white paint mixture used to coat rigi ...

and, after having requested some funding in view of the

1960 Summer Olympics The 1960 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XVII Olympiad () and commonly known as Rome 1960 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 25 August to 11 September 1960 in Rome, Italy. Rome had previously been awar ...

, the monument was concluded and inaugurated on 12 December 1959.

Description

The structure of the obelisk has the shape of a

truncated pyramid In geometry, a pyramid is a polyhedron formed by connecting a polygonal base and a point, called the apex. Each base edge and apex form a triangle, called a lateral face. A pyramid is a conic solid with a polygonal base. Many types of pyramids ca ...

and is made up of

reinforced concrete Reinforced concrete, also called ferroconcrete or ferro-concrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion of reinforcement having higher tensile strength or ...

covered with 92 slabs of Carrara marble, on which the high reliefs, arranged in 4 rows, are carved. The obelisk is placed in the center of the square, today named after Guglielmo Marconi; in the green flowerbed that surrounds it, the sculpture ''The awakening'', a work by Seward Johnson, was placed in 2009 and removed in 2011.{{Cite news, url=https://roma.repubblica.it/cronaca/2011/05/03/news/il_caso-15706230/, title=Eur, via il gigante accanto all'obelisco, journal=

La Repubblica (; English: "the Republic") is an Italian daily general-interest newspaper with an average circulation of 151,309 copies in May 2023. It was founded in 1976 in Rome by Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso (now known as GEDI Gruppo Editoriale) and l ...

, date=3 May 2011, access-date=7 February 2020

Notes

Marconi