Piazza Vittorio Veneto
Piazza Vittorio Veneto forms a large open square in Palermo, marking the end of Via Libertà with a monument at its centre. An obelisk rises from a sculpted base in the broad space. Ernesto Basile designed the monument in the Liberty style, Italy’s answer to Art Nouveau.
Palermo first planned it to commemorate Garibaldi’s arrival and Italian unification. The original design joined the obelisk with statues by Antonio Ugo. A woman represents Italy, while a young girl represents Sicily. Two side reliefs, The Battle and The Triumph, completed the first arrangement. After the First World War, the city adapted the structure into a memorial for fallen Sicilian soldiers.
A semicircular exedra later extended behind the obelisk. Mario Rutelli’s winged Victory now crowns the monument above the square. A plaque on the rear carries Italy’s victory bulletin and Austria’s surrender. Together, Basile’s architecture, Ugo’s figures and Rutelli’s sculpture trace changing political meanings in Palermo.
- City
- Palermo
- Content updated
Take this page with you
The myTuur app is free, and once you are standing at a spot its story starts by itself.
Spots like this one are the stops myTuur strings into tours through Palermo. In the app, each story begins where you stand: walk up to a spot and it starts, read it on screen or listen as you go, then follow the route to the next one.
What is myTuur?
myTuur is a free city-guide app. Its tours are built from spots, and each spot carries a story that starts when you get there, to read or to listen to as you like.