Monument to Francisco Bolognesi, Military monument in Lima District, Peru
The Monument to Francisco Bolognesi is a military memorial in Lima District, Peru, featuring a bronze sculpture of the colonel holding the Peruvian flag and a revolver, mounted on an obelisk. The sculpture stands at a roundabout in the city center where Lima District meets Breña District.
Colonel Francisco Bolognesi died defending Peru at the Battle of Arica in 1880 against Chilean forces. A first monument was built in 1905 and replaced in 1954 with the current bronze sculpture, which shows him in a pose considered more heroic than the original.
The monument stands at Plaza Bolognesi, a roundabout connecting several neighborhoods in central Lima. Every year on June 7, people gather there for a flag ceremony marking the Battle of Arica.
The monument is reachable from several streets since it sits at a central roundabout connecting different parts of the city. It can easily be combined with other points of interest in central Lima.
The 1905 original was replaced in 1954 because the earlier depiction was judged to lack the heroic quality expected of a national figure. This swap shows how public monuments are sometimes reworked to match a country's changing image of its heroes.
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