“And what does it matter whether my project is sculptural or architectonic, if it is powerful and felt by the public it will be chosen! “
On January 3d, 1879, Milan City Council appointed a Committee to draft a competition proposal for the realization of an architectonic monument to celebrate the heroes of the Five Days.
It was to be erected in Milan on the location of Porta Tosa, later renamed Porta Vittoria, which had been damaged during the 1848 combats.
In June 1879 the first competition was opened: all the projects were exhibited from the 11 to 30 of January in the Salon of the ´Giardini Pubblici’.
The winner was the architect Luca Beltrami but his project did not reach consensus and the City Council decided to open another competition, to which Giuseppe Grandi did participate.
In April 1881 ,the new projects were exhibited and, this time, in the official announcement, dated may 20th, Camillo Boito proclaimed that none of the eighty four projects exhibited « reached the level of the one presented by Giuseppe Grandi», to whom on July 6th was awarded the commission for the final monument, to be completed by 1886.
The realization however was to be protracted to thirteen bitter years, in which Grandi kept rethinking and re-elaborating his masterpiece, constantly fighting to defend his visionary work.
Grandi kept going forward, impervious to pressures or criticisms.
First he enlarged the surface of his atelier in via Stella adding a hangar; then he commissioned the construction of a nine thousand square meter [over two acres] atelier that could be used as a foundry as well and which was built on the site known as Acquabella.
To make sure that his allegories had the vitality of life he went to Hamburg to buy a lion and to Austria to get a King eagle.
From Sweden, he obtained the red marble of the monument central base.
The bronze casting of all the single figures took place between 1892 and 1894. On November 30, 1894 Grandi died in Ganna where he was born.
On March 18, 1895, the Monument was officially and solemnly inaugurated.
The remains of the victims of the insurrection against the Austrian are preserved in the Monument crypt.
In occasion of this exhibition ,the restoration, begun a few years ago , of Grandi’s plaster models donated to the City of Milan by the artist’s brother Benigno was completed as well that of other plaster models exhibited in the following section.

Close