The Victims of Labour

Vincenzo Vela decided to realize this monumental high relief on his own initiative to honour the many anonymous "martyrs of labour" killed or injured while working on the St Gotthard railway tunnel (1872-82). This relief is the first monument that celebrates the working class. A copy of the Victims in bronze was made in 1893 for the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna in Rome. In 1932 a replica was placed at the Airolo train station.