Facade of the Church of Sant Maria in Aracoeli
I didn’t really like the Altare della Patria here in Rome. It was really out of place. It seems that someone decided to put a massive monument in what is supposedly a very rich archeological site. The Roman Forum is literally just behind this monument and needless to say it really sticks out like a sore thumb. It seems a lot was done to put the monument here in the first place. It seems I wasn’t alone in this opinion as a lot of people also don’t like this monument. Their complaints were very similar to mine. Too big, too white, wrong place, wrong design and so on. Despite this, there are still a lot of visitors here in the monument, perhaps it was also a way to show that there is more to Rome than ancient Rome, new history is still being made or so they say.
Platform at the Altare della Patria in Rome
There was a good number of stairs to climb to the top of the monument. I wasn’t really sure what to expect, but this place was surprisingly open considering that it was a holiday. At the end of the stairs we were let outside the building. It seems that there was some kind of platform where you can have a look at Rome. I wasn’t terribly interested in that since my attention was more focused on another structure at the end of the stairs. Was that a church that I see? Seems this is the Church of Santa Maria in Aracoeli. This is a really strange place, in this monument to the unification of Italy, they now placed a church?
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