A victory column is a monument in the form of a column, erected in memory of a victorious war or battle. The column stands on a base and is crowned with a victory symbol in the form of a statue. The statue may represent the goddess Victoria; in Germany, the female embodiment of the nation, Germania; in the United States either female embodiment of the nation Liberty or Columbia; in the United Kingdom, the female embodiment Britannia; an eagle; or a war hero.
Famous victory columns include:
- Trajan's Column, Rome, Italy
- Column of Antoninus Pius, Rome, Italy
- Column of Marcus Aurelius, Rome, Italy
- Column of Justinian, Constantinople (modern Istanbul, Turkey)
- Alexander Column, Palace Square, Saint Petersburg
- Berlin victory column, Berlin, Germany
- Blenheim Column of Victory, Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, U.K..
- Boston Soldiers and Sailors Column, Boston, Massachusetts
- Columna de la Independencia, Mexico City, Mexico
- Hakenberg Victory Column, Hakenberg near Fehrbellin, Germany
- Nelson's Column, London, United Kingdom
- Rotonda de Hombres Ilustres, Chihuahua, Chih., Mexico
- Victory column, Altona, Hamburg, Germany
- Victory column, Nürnberg, Germany
- Victory column, Place Vendôme, Paris, France
- War of Independence Victory Column: (Estonian: Vabadussõja Võidusammas), Tallinn, Estonia
Famous quotes containing the words victory and/or column:
“One point in my public life: I did all I could for the reform of the civil service, for the building up of the South, for a sound currency, etc., etc., but I never forgot my party.... I knew that all good measures would suffer if my Administration was followed by the defeat of my party. Result, a great victory in 1880. Executive and legislature both completely Republican.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“When the landscape buckles and jerks around, when a dust column of debris rises from the collapse of a block of buildings on bodies that could have been your own, when the staves of history fall awry and the barrel of time bursts apart, some turn to prayer, some to poetry: words in the memory, a stained book carried close to the body, the notebook scribbled by hand—a center of gravity.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)