NATIONAL MONUMENT TO THE RESISTANCE OF GILIOLI
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Abstract work conceived as a signal repeating the V of victory.
Its white mass stands out against the fir forest. It's impossible not to be struck by the evocative power of this National Monument, which reminds us of the heroic and tragic story of the Resistance fighters on the Glières plateau. Nearly 30 years after the events of March 1944 (see our "Discoveries" section, History sidebar), this monument, the work of artist Emile Gilioli, was inaugurated in 1973 with a famous speech by André Malraux: "Gilioli's great white bird has planted its talons here, with its wing of hope, its wing amputated by combat, and between them its rising sun". A grandiose monument which, despite its 385 tonnes of concrete, seems ready to take flight. The shape of this abstract yet clearly symbolic work is conceived as a signal, echoing the V of victory. A V with one of its branches reaching for the sky as a sign of hope. On the other, with its broken wing, the monument shows us that freedom is fragile and that defending it can mean suffering. Another element of this monument is the imposing solar disk (weighing 65 tonnes, it is a technical feat, suspended above a branch of the V), which appears between the mountains like a rebirth.
Inside the monument, which is also a place of meditation, you can read the Maquis motto: "Live free or die". The monument has been awarded the "Patrimoine du XXe siècle" label and is classified as a historic monument.
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