Victory Lighthouse

Turin is a city of a thousand "secrets," there are places that not even "local" tourists know, one of them being the Victory Lighthouse, a place that is already not easy to reach, being located among the hills of Turin. To reach it one has to study a map very carefully, walk through a labyrinthine intersection of small streets, and deal with less than perfect signage (although in the 1980s/70s it was completely absent).

The Victory Lighthouse, as the lofty title itself suggests, represents Victory; it is a sculpture of a Winged Woman, very classical in tone, she holds a torch. The statue is of fine workmanship, built by Turin sculptor Edoardo Rubino in 1928, the statue (made entirely of bronze), was commissioned and donated to the city of Turin by Senator Agnelli, in honor of the victory over the Austrians in the (controversial) Great War. The statue is definitely large, third in the world in order of size (as far as bronze statues are concerned), at 18.50 meters it observes the city from one of the best vantage points in Turin. The statue sits atop Magdalene Hill, on the side opposite Superga Hill. It is also an area of Turin that is rich in greenery and nature, being within the Parco della Rimembranza, a park that has been somewhat "dedicated" to the fallen soldiers of the 1915-18 war; on each of the trees in the park (about 4900) a plaque has been placed bearing the names of the soldiers who died. Notable details include the epigraph on the base of the statue, which was dictated by Gabriele d'Annunzio. This place was for decades left to itself in a complete (or almost) state of neglect, only recently (in 2013) it was fully recovered with a restoration from private funds, which led to its reactivation after years of inactivity. The lighthouse, with its 10,000 watts of power, is also visible from the city.