The libertador of Latin America, Simón Bolívar (1783–1830) was in Rome in 1805 and on 15th August, together with his friend, mentor and compatriot Don Simón Rodríguez, and according to other authors (SALIMA and VELÁSQUEZ) also with Fernando Toro, went on the Monte Sacro, where in 494 bC the plebs secession took place, where he said his oath: "¡Juro delante de usted, juro por el Dios de mis padres, juro por ellos, juro por mi honor y juro por mi patria, que no daré descanso a mi brazo, ni reposo a mi alma, hasta que haya roto las cadenas que nos oprimen por voluntad del poder español !" ("I swear before you, I swear by the God of my forefathers, I swear by them, I swear by my honor and I swear by my country, that I will give no rest to my arm nor rest to my soul, until I have broken the chains that oppress us by the will of the Spanish power! ").
On 27th
December 1922, the City Council of Rome gave the current square
Piazza Menenio Agrippa, in Garden City Aniene, (currently named
Monte Sacro) the name of Piazza Bolivar. Today a square in the
park of Villa Borghese is dedicated to Bolivar. On 17th
December 1930, on the occasion of the first centenary of the death
of the Libertador and 125th anniversary of his oath, a memorial
plaque was dedicated to him on
the facade of Don Bosco school, in piazza Monte Baldo, bearing
the following inscription: "XVII dicembre MCMXXX - A Simone
Bolivar, che sul sacro suolo dell'Urbe, giurò di restituire
a libertà i suoi generosi fratelli d'America. Roma madre
delle genti, nel primo centenario della sua morte, dedica questo
ricordo e latinamente saluta i popoli redenti dal Liberatore".
("On 17th December 1930 - To Simon Bolivar,
that on the sacred ground of the City, vowed to return freedom
to his generous brothers of America. Rome, mother of the nations,
in the first centenary of his death, dedicates this memory and
greets in the Latin way the people redeemed by the Liberator".
On the same wall, just below the 1930 plaque, another small
plaque is placed, bearing these words: "Un juramento
inspiró tu grandeza, un recuerdo constante de nosotros
la ensalza y engrandece cada día más. - Misión
Naval Venezolana de entrenamiento en Italia. Roma, 12 de Octubre
de 1956" ("An oath was inspired by your greatness,
a constant reminder by us enhances and magnifies it every day.
- Venezuelan Naval Training Mission in Italy. Rome, 12th
October 1956").
On 25th February 2005 in Caracas, Venezuela,
the final document of fourth Summit on Social Debt, laying out
the need of the Social Charter of the Americas, defined the charter
as the heir of Monte Sacro oath and on 16th
October 2005, the two-hundredth anniversary of Bolívar
visit, Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías,
President of Venezuela, the nation
that had seen the birth of Bolivar, paid tribute to the memorial
that commemorates the event, also performing the first official
visit by a chief of state to a district of Rome.
The memorial of Bolivar
oath is located on the top of Monte Sacro hill, which is today
a public garden, named "Parco Simón Bolívar",
a few hundred meters from Piazza Sempione. To get there, from
piazza Menenio Agrippa go down the old Via Nomentana (along the
garden), take the first left, Via Falterona, next to the mausoleum;
after a few meters, enter the garden on the right side through
the gate and climb on top of the hill (about a hundred meters
of "climb"). The monument,
inaugurated August 15th, 2005 and designed by the Venezuelan
Jorge Castello with the collaboration of the great Fruto
Vivas (website),
consists of one elliptical open space with a circular platform
in the middle. On the platform, a 8 meters high central Attican
column of Iranian travertine-like
marble, rises from a granite square base, which can be lit, representing
"the beacon that will illuminate forever the future development
of mankind", silently creating the harmony typical of
the sacred places.
The monument is accompanied, on the edge of the open space, by
a bust of Bolivar and by a series
of transparent panels bearing the text of the oath in Italian
and Spanish, and the names of the commissioners, the Italian and
Venezuelan presidents of the Republic (Ciampi
and Chavez), the foreign ministers of the two countries, the embassy
of Venezuela in Rome and the Municipality of Rome. The memorial
was restored and fixed up on August 13th, 2014, after being vandalized.
Currently the garden is protected by gates and cameras to prevent
further acts of vandalism.
The bust of Simon Bolivar was also vandalized in May 2019 and
returned to its place on June 27, 2021, after the restoration.
In 2024, new episodes of vandalism occurred against the bust of
Simón Bolívar: the bust had been smeared with paint,
a company commissioned by the Embassy of Bolivia intervened to
clean it, and the replacement of the glass of one of the panels
was scheduled which bear the memory of the Monte Sacro oath, shattered
by vandals.
Subsequently, on the night of February 4, vandals knocked
down the statue of Simòn Bolivar, breaking it into
two parts. Venezuelan
President Nicolas Maduro Moros on Instagram
condemned the unacceptable act of vandalism, attributing it to
the fascist hordes, friends of the Venezuelan far right, which
does not love the country.
Again on February 28, again at night, vandals broke Bolívar's
head into a million pieces.,
already damaged less than a month earlier, which had been placed
on a bench, awaiting restoration, and surrounded by a fence.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
CAFERRI
F., OPPES A. (2005) Chavez, un rivoluzionario a Roma Sono un libertador,
come Bolivar. La Repubblica, October 17th 2005 link
G.I. (2005)
Chavez ricorda Simon Bolivar a Montesacro. La Repubblica,
October 16th 2005 link
GONZÁLEZ
DÍAZ Joaquím (1960) Il Giuramento di Bolivar sul
Monte Sacro. Capitolium,4: 3-6.6.
MESSINA FAJARDO Luisa A. (2005) Simón Bolívar
1805-2005. Doscientos años después del Juramento
en el Monte Sacro - Roma. Informativo Venezuela Bolivariana,
3. 2: 16-17. link
PULLARA Giuseppe (2005) Chavez a Montesacro "Qui giurò
Bolivar duecento anni fa". Il Corriere della sera, October
17th 2005 link
PERRECA Alessia (2024) Roma, vandali scatenati a Montesacro: danneggiato
nella notte il busto di Simòn Bolìvar. La testa
di gesso in frantumi. Il Messaggero online Montesacro.
February 28, 2024. link
SALIMA Pedro, VELÁSQUEZ Aníbal (2008) Reflexiones
en torno al Juramento del Monte Sacro (selección de ensayos).
Fundación Editorial el perro y la rana, Caracas
link
http://www.latinoamerica-online.info/cult05/arti05.27.juramento_bolivar.html
http://www.frutovivas.net/
http://www.vtv.gob.ve/articulos/2014/10/15/16-de-octubre-de-2005-comandante-chavez-visita-el-monte-sacro-9243.html
http://www1.adnkronos.com/Archivio/AdnAgenzia/2005/08/14/Cronaca/ROMA-A-MONTESACRO-MONUMENTO-PER-BICENTENARIO-GIURAMENTO-BOLIVAR_153004.php
http://www.aporrea.org/actualidad/n67404.html
page
created: June
26th, 2015 and last updated:
March
5th, 2024