ABSTRACT
The use to honour gods, emperors, distinguished persons or memorable events erecting a statue or a building was established by the ancient civilizations and then reaffirmed by Christian monarchies with saints, kings, queens, ministers, etc. A few examples of ancient monuments still survive in Milan, but a great number of these commemorative signs were erected after the Italian unification. The contemporary trend favours the representations of shapes and patterns rather than a portrayed character or a realistic likeness. A complete list of Milan monuments, together with columns, obelisks or fountains, reports the different materials: different stones (granite, marble, conglomerate) employed for pedestals and bronze or white marble from the Apuanian Alps employed for statues.
