The Shrine of Remembrance is a war memorial in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It was built to honour the men and women of Victoria who served in World War I, but now functions as a memorial to all Australians who have served in any war. It is a site of annual observances for ANZAC Day and Remembrance Day, and is one of the largest war memorials in Australia. Designed by architects Phillip Hudson and James Wardrop, the Shrine is in classical style, based on the Tomb of Mausolus at Halicarnassus and the Parthenon in Athens, Greece.
About Shrine of Remembrance in brief
The Shrine of Remembrance is a war memorial in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, located in Kings Domain on St Kilda Road. It was built to honour the men and women of Victoria who served in World War I, but now functions as a memorial to all Australians who have served in any war. It is a site of annual observances for ANZAC Day and Remembrance Day, and is one of the largest war memorials in Australia. Designed by architects Phillip Hudson and James Wardrop, the Shrine is in classical style, based on the Tomb of Mausolus at Halicarnassus and the Parthenon in Athens, Greece. It originally consisted only of the central sanctuary surrounded by the ambulatory. Beneath the sanctuary lies the crypt, which contains a bronze statue of a soldier father and son, and panels listing every unit of the Australian Imperial Force. Once per year, on 11 November at 11 a.m. , a ray of sunlight shines through an aperture in the roof to light up the word \”Love\” in the inscription. The foundation stone was laid on 11 Nov 1927, and the Shrine was officially dedicated on11 November 1934. The Shrine went through a prolonged process of development, which began in 1918 with an initial proposal to build a Victorian memorial. A competition was launched in March 1922 to find a design for the new memorial, open both to British subjects residing in Australia and any Australian citizens who were residing overseas. A total of 83 entries were submitted, and in December 1923 the design offered by two Melbourne architects was announced as the winner.
The winning design had a number of supporters, including publications such as The Age and George Taylor’s Sydney-based trade journal, Building, prominent citizens including artist Norman Lindsay and University of Sydney Dean of Architecture, Leslie Wilkinson. Nevertheless, the design was also fiercely criticised in some quarters, especially by Keith Murdoch’s Herald, who described the Shrine as ‘a tomb of gloom’ and ‘too severe, stiff and heavy’ A number of alternatives were proposed, the most significant of which was the ANzAC Square and cenotaph proposal of 1926. As a result of the debate, delays postponed the construction of the memorial, so a temporary wood-and-plaster cenodaph was raised for the 1926 ANZac Day march. The success of the temporary cenaph led the Victorian government to abandon the project in 1926, and propose instead to build a permanent memorial at the top of Bourke House in front of Parliament. When the Labor government was replaced with John Allan’s National coalition, the plan changed towards the earlier suggestion of an arch of victory once again, once again leaning towards leaning towards the ANZAC Square proposal. In August 1921 an executive committee was formed, with the former commander of theAustralian forces in the war, General Sir John Monash, as its driving force. The committee soon abandoned the idea of anarch of victory and proposed a large monumental memorial to the east of St Kilda Road, the major boulevard leading out of the city of Melbourne to the south.
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