Shrine of Remembrance
The Shrine of Remembrance was built between July 1928 and November 1934 in remembrance of those 114,000 men and women of Victoria who served and those who died in the Great War of 1914-1918. 89,100 of them served overseas and 19,000 did not return.The people of Victoria felt that their debt to these volunteers, who had defended them at such great costs to themselves and their families, should be recognised by a worthy permanent monument of remembrance.
Although the country was faced with frightful unemployment and financial difficulty in the late 1920s and the 1930s, so great was the gratitude of the people that the huge amount required to build the Shrine was raised or promised within six months from the opening of the appeal in 1928.
The Shrine of Remembrance, Melbourne's most recognisable landmark, is open from 10am to 5pm daily, except on Good Friday and Christmas Day.
With the opening of the Visitor Centre and Entrance Courtyard on the north-east corner of the Shrine, the northern steps are now used as the Ceremonial Entrance to the building. The stairway which leads to the Shrine is flanked by balustrades on which stand great urns or ornamental stone. Besides these urns each balustrade bears a stone disc on which is carved the name on one of the battle honours and guidons granted by His Majesty King George V. These honour disks are repeated on the southern, eastern and western approaches to the Shrine.
The Parthenon in Athens inspired the entrance porches (porticoes) including the Doric order of columns. The porticos on the north and south of the Shrine are identical. Eight massive Doric columns support a triangular pediment enclosing a tympanum of allegorical sculpture beautifully carved. Its designer, Philip Hudson, made all vertical lines of the Shrine incline towards a point of convergence 2.25 kilometres above ground level. A similar technique, called entasis, was employed by ancient Greek architects to correct optical distortions.
The northern tympana are the triangular stone faces of the pediments over the portico columns on the north and south sides of the Shrine. Above the northern entrance to the Shrine is a tympanum, to represent the 'Call to arms'. The tympanum on the south side of the Shrine represents 'TThe Homecoming'. The eastern and western walls of the Shrine are given over entirely to dedicatory insricptions carved deep into the stone.
The pyramidal roof was inspired by the ancient Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, the tomb of the King of Caria (in modern Turkey). Sketched reconstructions of this structure, destroyed long ago, had for centuries influenced funerary architecture. The external buttress sculptures on the east and west walls represent the virtues of Patriotism, Sacrifice, Justice and Peace and Goodwill.
Officially opened in August 2003, the Visitor Centre provides improved access to the Shrine for the elderly and the disabled. External steps and the northern doors are now only used for ceremonial purposes.
Location: Birdwood Avenue, Melbourne. The Shrine can be reached from the City and Flinders Street Railway Station via St Kilda Road.
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