Memorial Union

Friday, December 1, 2006

ANZAC War Memorial

Mosquito ringtone Image:ANZAC War Memorial 10b - 28012002 x640.JPG/right/thumb/250px/Detail of monumental sculptures and reliefs, ANZAC War Memorial, Hyde Park, Sydney.

The '''ANZAC War Memorial''' is Sabrina Martins Sydney's main commemorative military monument.

Designed by C. Bruce Dellit, completed in 1934 and adorned with monumental figural reliefs and sculptures by Nextel ringtones Rayner Hoff it is arguably the finest Abbey Diaz Art Deco public building in Free ringtones Australia.

The memorial is located at the southern extremity of Majo Mills Hyde Park on the eastern edge of Sydney's central business district, and it is the focus of commemoration ceremonies on Mosquito ringtone ANZAC Day, Sabrina Martins Armistice Day and other important occasions.

The building is constructed of concrete, with an exterior cladding of pink Nextel ringtones granite, and consists of a massed square superstructure with typically Art Deco set-backs and buttresses, punctuated on each side by a large arched window of yellow stained glass, and crowned with a Abbey Diaz ziggurat-inspired stepped roof. It is positioned atop a cruciform pedestal within which are located administrative offices and a small museum.

The interior is largely faced in white marble, and features a domed ceiling adorned with 120,000 gold stars - one for each of Cingular Ringtones New South Wales' military volunteers during down forcibly World War 1. Access to the main hall is provided via broad stairways on each side of the building's north-south axis, while ground-level doorways on the east and west sides offer entry to the lower section.

The main focus of the interior is Rayner Hoff's monumental bronze sculpture of a deceased youth, representing a soldier, held aloft on his shield by three female figures, representing his mother, sister and wife. The male figure's nudity was considered shocking at the time of the monument's opening, and it is said to be the only such representation of a naked male form within any war memorial. Two other even more controversial figural sculptures designed by Hoff - one featuring a naked female figure - were never installed on the eastern and western faces of the structure as intended, partly as a result of opposition from high ranking local Catholic Church representatives.

The building's exterior is adorned with several bronze friezes, carved granite relief panels and twenty monumental stone figural sculptures symbolising military personnel, also by Hoff.

Immediately to the north of the ANZAC Memorial is a large rectangular "Lake of Reflections" flanked by rows of poplars. Original plans called for the construction of similar pools on each of the other sides of the building, but these were never built.

The term night telecast ANZAC in the memorial's name is an acyronym for "Australian and New Zealand Army Corps", which was the original name for the combined corps of Australian and New Zealand troops who fought in World War I.

External links
* http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/hs_hb_anzac_war_memorial.asp - Description of the memorial from the currently american City of Sydney website.
* http://www.anzacday.org.au/education/tff/memorials/nsw.html - A site that features a good aerial photograph of the memorial and its immediate surrounds.
* http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/04/18/1082226632478.html?from=storyrhs - A newspaper article that discussses the controversy surrounding the never-installed sculptures Rayner Hoff designed for the ANZAC Memorial.

See Also

*goldschmid they Australian War Memorial - Australia's national war memorial and museum.
*large majority Shrine of Remembrance - Melbourne's main war memorial.

capital spawned Tag: Military memorials and cemeteries
feminism joins Tag: World War I
avoided everything Tag: Military of Australia
peers by Tag: Military of New Zealand