Erected in 1824 by Pietro Nobile according to plans designed by Luigi Cagnola, and inaugurated by Emperor Francis I of Austria in the honour of the veterans of the Napoleonic Wars, it was rebuilt as a war memorial in 1933/34 and houses a Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
•
It was meant to glorify the Habsburg dynasty as great Austrian military leaders, though they just had suffered a crushing defeat at the bloody Battle of Solferino.