Monumento ai Caduti - Palermo

This obelisk was erected on April 4, 1866 , in the sixth year of the anniversary of the Gancia Uprising (an anti-Bourbon movement that ended in bloodshed that preceded the landing of the thousand in Marsala by just 37 days), in the center of the square, dedicated to the martyrs of Italian independence.

It bears the inscription:

'For the generous
the prison was a palace,
the gallows a throne.
Don't let Italy
have other martyrs
except those who died
in the fighting in their homeland.
Of broken thrones
to broken chains,
the name
of the martyrs remains."

In ancient times the square was known as "Piano di S. Teresa". The square was named after Santa Teresa D'Avila by the will of the people, as well as the church, because during the period in which the work for the construction of the religious complex was carried out (1610-25), the honor and popularity of the saint , who had the merit of reforming the Carmelite Order and who was beatified and immediately canonized within three years, from 1619 to 1622.

This name survived until the proclamation of the Unification of Italy, on which occasion it was changed to the current Piazza dell'Indipendenza .

Willem Vandenameele