Triumphal Arches - What is and What is Not
This is the third iteration of this post. The original, published 01-Apr-2014, was ‘Four Arcs de Triomphe (none of them in Paris). The
second, 29-June-2018, included newly collected arches, but also omitted Lutyens’
India Gate from the earlier post on the grounds it was a War Memorial, not a Triumphal Arch.
Defining a Triumphal Arch is difficult. Some arches called Triumphal have no associated triumph, and then there are Monumental
Gates and War Memorials which can look very similar.
Although retaining the title, I have chosen a new and more inclusive definition for these posts (there are now two of them, this one and pre-1900). For the
purposes of this blog an ‘Arc de Triomphe’ is an arch with no structural
purpose. This definition includes war memorials built in arch form – like the
India Gate mentioned above and also Monumental Gates as long as they were built
to be symbolic i.e. not city gates built as part of a wall, even if the wall
has long gone. The other qualification of inclusion is that I have been there and taken the photograph.
Arches of the 20th and 21st Centuries
For Classical Arches and modern arches built before 1900, see part 1.
All the arches below owe a debt to the Parisian Arc, (almost) the first modern Arc de Triomphe. In some cases the debt is very obvious, for others it is more in spirit than in substance.
So, In order of construction:
The Gateway of India, Mumbai
Completed 1924, Visited 14-Mar-2019
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| India |
In 1911 George V became the first British monarch to visit the Jewel in the Crown. The Gateway of India on the Mumbai (then Bombay) waterfront
was conceived as a symbolic entrance to the sub-continent for the King-Emperor and
Queen-Empress.
Careful planning is not just a feature of the current British government. In 1911 the King and Queen passed through a world-beating
cardboard gate, the stone version would be built once the design.was agreed.
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| The Gateway of India, Mumbai |
The foundation stone was laid in March 1913 but another year passed before George Wittet’s Indo-Saracenic gate was given the
go-ahead. Work was completed in 1924.
The gateway was subsequently used as a symbolic entrance to British India by important colonial personnel and the last British troops
left through it at independence in 1948. Once unpopular as a representation of
"conquest and colonisation" it is now a symbol of the city and an
attraction to tourists and the army of street vendors that prey upon them.
The India Gate, New Delhi
Completed 1931, Visited 16-Feb-2013
At the start of the 20th century Edwin Lutyens had the rare privilege of designing a new capital for Britain’s most prized possession. The
ceremonial Kingsway, leading to the Viceroy’s palace through the administrative
heart of his new city, was modelled on The Mall, but with a nod to
the Champs Elysées.
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| The India Gate, New Delhi |
In 1921 he was commissioned to build a memorial to the Indian soldiers who died fighting for the Empire in the First World War. It is now a
memorial to the 70,000 who died in conflicts between 1914 and
1920. Completed in 1931, The India Gate was placed at the opposite end of the
Kingsway (now Rajpath) from the Viceroy’s Palace (now the President’s
Palace). If the Kingsway nodded toward the Champs Elysées, the India Gate bows
deeply towards the Arc de Triomphe.
Arcul de Triumf, Bucharest
Completed in 1936, Visited 25-Jun-2023
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| Romania |
With the world organised as it is, we do occasionally have to remind ourselves that it was not always thus, and most nation-states, even
in Europe, are creations of the 19th century; there was no Germany before 1860
and no Italy before 1861. A Romania, smaller than the present country, achieved
recognition as an independent state in 1878 and a wooden Arcul de Triumf was
constructed on what would become a roundabout in north east Bucharest.
The end of World War One saw the creation of a larger Romania that included most speakers of the Romanian language. This required the
construction of a new arch on the same site. It was designed by Petre Antonescu
with a concrete interior and a heavily sculpted plaster exterior. The plaster became
badly eroded, so in 1936 Antonescu designed a new, more durable and less
flamboyant arch and that has survived to this day (with restoration work in
2014).
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| Arcul de Triumf, Bucharest |
It is not the grandest of Arcs de Triomphe, and rather outside the city centre, though its roundabout is negotiated by all visitors being driven into Bucharest from the airport. Military parades pass beneath it every 1st of December, Romania’s national day.
Monumento a la Revolución, Mexico City
Built 1938 Visited 18-Nov-2017
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| Mexico |
Intended as a neo-classical home for the Federal Legislative Palace, building started in 1910 but was halted two years later by the revolution. In 1938 the completed first stage was adapted as a monument to the revolution that halted the building and it now contains the tombs of five revolutionary heroes including Pancho Villa.
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| Monument a la Revolucion, Mexico City |
Transforming the core of a parliament building into a triumphal arch altered the neo-classical intention into something that has been
described as Mexican socialist realism. Whatever the label, I think it’s ugly
(sorry Mexico). At 75m high it is the world’s highest triumphal arch, but
please don’t tell Kim Jung Un, he would only make his bigger.
Independence Monument, Phnom Penh
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| Cambodia |
Completed 1958 Visited 17th of February 2014
This 37m high sandstone arch was built in 1958 to celebrate Cambodian independence from France some five years previously. It now also commemorates Cambodia's war dead - and there are a vast number for such a small country.
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| The Independence Monument, Phnom Penh |
Designed by Cambodian architect Vann Molyvann to resemble a lotus shaped stupa, it sits at the intersection of Norodom Boulevard and Sihanouk Boulevard, and is the ceremonial, if not geographical, centre of the city. A flame is lit on the inner pedestal, usually by the King, at times of national celebration and commemoration.
Patouxai, Vientiane
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| Laos |
Built 1957-68, Visited 1st of March 2014
Ironically, this Arc de Triomphe was built to commemorate victory over the French. Laos gained its independence in 1954 after the first Indo-China War and Patouxai (Victory Arch) was built in the late 1950s. Less reverently it is known as ‘The Vertical Runway’ as there is a story that it was built from concrete donated by the Americans for airport construction.
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| Patouxai (Victory Arch), Vientiane |
There are stairs inside and shops at three levels. From the top there is a good view over the gardens below one way and down Lan Xang Avenue – Vientiane’s Champs Elysées the other.
The Arch of Triumph, Pyongyang
Built 1982, Visited 9th September 2013
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| North Korea |
North Korea’s Arch of Triumph, in Triumphant Return Square, commemorates Kim Il Sung's return to the capital (in 1948) and his founding of the Democratic People's' Republic of Korea after almost single-handedly driving the Japanese colonialists from his country (DPRK history avoids mentioning the global conflict and ignores contributions made by other combatants, including the Chinese, British and the hated Americans).
It was built in 1982 to celebrate his 70th birthday and is is blatant rip off of the French ‘original’. Two interesting details are that a) it is 10m taller than the Parisian Arch and b) that fact was the first thing we were told when we arrived in the square; delusions of grandeur and a chip on the shoulder being most obvious attributes of Kim Il Sung and the dynasty he founded.
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| Arch of Triumph, Pyongyang |
Pyongyang’s sparse traffic means that it is perfectly safe to stand in the middle of the ‘Champs Elysées’ to take a photograph.
Eternal Flame, Martyrs Alley, Baku
Opened 9th of October 1998
Visited 12th of August 2014
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| Azerbaijan |
The events of Azerbaijan’s Black January are little known in the UK.
In 1990 in, the dying days of its empire the Soviet Union declared a state of emergency in Azerbaijan. The Popular Front responded
by imposing roadblocks around Baku which Soviet troops broke through, killing
some 130 unarmed protestors. The Russian claims that the first shots came from
the Azeri side, are hotly disputed. What our otherwise admirable Azeri guide did
not tell us was that the state of emergency was declared to stop a pogrom which
had killed 90 of Baku’s Armenian residents. What the Armenians never mentioned
when we were there, was that the pogrom was provoked by Armenia granting
citizenship to ethnic Armenians in the Azeri district of Nagorno Karabakh. What
the Azeris forget to mention..... and so on in a time-honoured chicken-and-egg
argument. The resulting Azerbaijan-Armenia war ended in 1994 with Karabakh
becoming a de facto independent state (now called Artsakh) and Azerbaijan feeling
miffed. Negotiations – and occasional shootings - continue. [Including a major outbreak in 2020.]
In Martyr's Alley the 130 who died in Black January are commemorated with names and photographs in black marble. At the end is an eternal flame.
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| Eternal Flame, Martyr's Alley, Baku |
The eternal flame is the biggest test of my new rule for deciding what should be in and what out. Can it really be called an arch? Is it more of an elongated, heavyweight gazebo? I said I would be inclusive, so it is in.
The Arch of Bender
Built 2008 Visited
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| Transnistria |
Bender (or Bendery, sometimes Tighina) is a city on the right bank of the River Dniester in the breakaway Republic of Transnistria, officially part of Moldova. Bender was on the front line in many of the wars between the Russian and Ottoman Empires, its fortress being taken by the Russians in 1779, 1789 and 1806 (and lost in between). An arch commemorating the Russian capture of Bender Fort in 1806 was erected in Chişinău, the Moldovan capital, but was destroyed, along with much else, in 1944.
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| The Arch of Bender, Bender, Transnistria |
This arch in Bender is a 2008 replica of that destroyed arch. The major result of the 1806-12 war was the Russian Empire’s
gain of Bessarabia (approximately Moldova and Transnistria), so the arch is a
message, or warning, from the Russian orientated Transnistrians to the
Moldovans and their European ambitions.
Porta Macedonia, Skopje
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| North Macedonia |
Built 2011 Visited May 2015
The Porta Macedonia was designed by Valentina Stefanovska as part of the then Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski’s ‘Skopje 2014’
project which saddled the capital with a series of grandiose monuments at great
expense. Despite its name it is not a gate, nor is it a war memorial, but the
design is classic Triumphal Arch, so that is what it must be, though apart from
commemorating 20 years of Macedonian independence it is unclear what the
‘triumph’ was.
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| Porta Macedonia |
I am unconvinced that spending €4.4m on a triumphal arch was the best use of money, which is not overabundant in Skopje. Gruevski
was prime minister from 2006 until forced to resign in 2016. In May 2018 he started
a two years prison sentence for corruption.
and finally....
This space is available free to any country willing to build itself a pointless arch
