Shrine of remembrance-Melbourne, Australia

Building, the front view

History of human beings is a history of war. Ever since human beings were civilized, they have had wars in their history and the war actually killed many people, who were involved in wars directly, and who were victimized by its damage. Those who remained alive must have unanimously thought to give comfort to spirits of the deceased. Shine of remembrance in Melbourne is one of those thoughts.

Melbourne, the Economist's high-ranked city as the livable city in the world, is located in the south-east in Australia. The city now belongs to the state of Victoria and the state's capital city. Shrine of remembrance is located in the south from Melbourne's central part (called "city") and near from Royal Botanic Garden.

According to the shrine's website, the shrine was built for people in Victoria who died in Wolrd War I, and became a memorial to Australian victims. Especially, it was difficult to bring back bodies of soldiers who died in the war front-line overseas into their home in Australia, so the shrine is kind of a collective gravestone for those undetected Australians.

I was trying to go to the city's royal botanic garden but found this place by chance. Since the building was tall and looked gorgeous, I got excited to go inside.

Skylight

When I entered into the building, I found a ray of light coming down from the ceiling in a spacious entrance hall. I looked up for where the light came from and I found a small square-shaped skylight. The light helped me reminded that this place was important to this city and I should never be vulgar to this respectfulness.

There were many Australian or Union Jack frags hanged from the building's ceiling and it seems to represent the enshrined people. I didn't find tangibly but I heard later that the shrine had lists of the victim's names in the shrine. There were not vivid exhibitions and it looked to me that the whole place was simply to embed the war remembrance in our hearts to never let it happen.

Decorations of the building's outer wall were beautiful. Reliefs related to the war were embedded onto the wall and sculptures were deployed every side. These decorations their selves were worthy to take a look.

I saw a group of school students with their teacher. A man who looked a guide of the shrine explained its origin to the school people. The shine has been used for education in school, simply for remembrance. A generation who indulged into the war is respected by their next generation, and now it is being passed onto the new generation. The history, sometimes with regret, goes alive.

Decorations on the wall

Frags

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