Peace Monuments Made from Old Weapons

Click here for peace monuments depicting "Swords Into Plowshares" (Isaiah 2:4 & Micah 4:3).

Right click image to enlarge.

1878 - "Charrue de la Paix" / "Plow of Peace," Salle de l'Alabama / Hall of the Alabama, Hotel de Ville / City Hall, Geneva (Switzerland). Offerte à la Ville et au peuple de Genève après avoir figuré comme symbole de paix à l'exposition de Paris en 1878. Elle fut confectionnée avec les sabres que des officiers américains avaient cédés lors d'un congrès pour la paix tenu en 1872 à Philadelphie par l' "Universal Peace Union". La cloche est une réplique miniature de la "Liberty Bell" de Philadelphie. Elle sonna l'ouverture de la première assemblée de la Société des Nations le 15 novembre 1920."

S T A T U E

March 13, 1904 - Cristo Redentor de los Andes / Christ of the Andes, Uspallata Pass, Andes Mountains (Argentina/Chile). Celebrates the Peace of King Edward VII [1841-1910] of England. The statue was cast from melted military armaments, and hauled thirteen thousand feet to the top of the mountain by the armies of both nations. The monument was on the cover of Time Magazine, December 17, 1928.

Date? - Monumento "La Destruccion de las Armas," Parque la Paz / Peace Park, San Jose (Costa Rica). "Peace Park monument is surrounded with broken weapons. Costa Rica abolished their army in 1948."

1990 - Parque de la Paz / Peace Park, Plaza de la Paz / Peace Square, downtown Managua (Nicaragua). Commemorates the end of the Contra Conflict [1979-1990]. "The fierce weapon-buying campaign of President Violeta Chamorro (who became president on on April 25, 1990) eradicated the threat of persisting violence." "Basically, a huge hole was dug in the ground and then filled with guns and cement, part of the park sculpted into a lighthouse and an abstract modern structure of squares, while the other part of the park is really rough and crude, and looks as if they poured a bunch of concrete on the edge of a small hill and then started jamming rifles into the quickly setting concrete." The park now suffers from neglect, homelessness, and valdalism. Lower left image shows cement-covered AK-47's. Lower right image shows a cement-covered tank.

1995 - Tour de la Paix / Peace Tower, Beirut (Lebanon). Concrete tower embedding old guns and tanks. "Accumulation de chars et de canons dans du béton, 32 m de haut et d'un poids de 6 000 tonnes. La plus grande sculpture faite par Arman [1928-2005] à ce jour. Une des plus grandes sculptures contemporaines dans le monde."

1996 - "A Landmark for Peace," MLK Park, one block west of 17th Street & College Avenue, Indianapolis, Indiana (USA). Marks the spot where presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy [1926-1968] announced on April 4, 1968, to a large, mostly Black audience that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. [1929-1968] had just been assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. (Kennedy was assassinated on June 6, 1968.) Designed by Indiana artist Greg Perry, the monument includes busts of King & Kennedy sculpted by controversial artist Daniel Edwards from handguns melted down after a police buy back program. Click here for a description by Rev. Chris Buice of Knoxville, Tennessee, including text of Kennedy's speech which helped prevent race riots as occured in at least 110 other US cities. Click here for a 2009 video about the event and monument. Click here for air view of the park & monument. A plaque credits Diane Meyer Simon and various Simon family interests as major contributors. The plaque also says that the monument is "Dedicated to the memory of Larry Conrad" but says nothing about Conrad (a local lawyer and Democratic politician who died in 1990). Visited by EWL 08Aug09.

1997 - Guns to Plowshares, Judiciary Square Metro Stattion, Washington, DC (USA). Sculpture by Esther & Michael Augsburger: 20-foot plowshare with 3,000 welded handguns donated by the Metropolitan Police. Entry #1111 in the "Peace Movement Directory" by James Richard Bennett (2001).

F I N S

May 30, 1998 - "The Fin Project: From Swords Into Plowshares," Magnuson Park, Sand Point, Seattle, Washington (USA). 22 submarine fins. Two monuments in different cities (Seattle & Miami, Florida) made from the surplus fins of nuclear attack submarines by sculptor John T. Young. Entry #1053 in the "Peace Movement Directory" by James Richard Bennett (2001).

F I N S

September 2002 - "The Fin Project: From Swords Into Plowshares," Pelican Harbor, North Bay Village, Miami, Florida (USA). Made from 24 surplus fins of nuclear attack submarines by scupltor John T. Young. Similar monument in Seattle, Washington.

B E L L

1999 - Bell of Peace, International Centre of Culture (The Pyramid), Boulevard Deshmoret e Kombit, Tirana (Albania). "Made as a memorial to peace by the children of Shkodra. Its metal comes from thousands of bullet cartridges, fired off during the lawless 1990's." "Originally the mausoleum for Stalinist dictator Enver Hoxha [1908-1985], the Pyramid has seen the eviction of Hoxha's corporeal remains and the burgeoning of Albania's interest in the culture and arts."

B E L L

Date? - Friedensglocke / Peace Bell, Rathaus, Dessau (Germany). Ein Denkmal für die politische Wende 1989 in der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik. Sie wurde aus den Waffen der Kampfgruppen gegossen." The Peace Bell is a monument to the political changes of 1989. Made from 1250 assault rifles, 174 light machine guns, 87 anti-tank rifles and 171 pistols in an iron foundry Dessauer molten steel arms of the battle groups of the GDR, with the help of donations means that 4.2 t heavy cast bell

2000 - Monument de la Paix / Peace Monument, Timbuktu (Mali). Steps to the monument are covered with welded small arms laid down by warring factions. Also called Flamme de la Paix.

2001 - Throne of Weapons, Maputo (Mozambique). By Cristovao (Kester) Estevao. "Bought by the British Museum from the 2002 Christian Aid exhibition ‘Swords into Ploughshares.’ It has travelled the length and breadth of the UK this year, being displayed in schools, churches, youth centres and a prison, as well as in museums, to represent Africa in 2005 as a symbol of a positive, forward-looking future." Click here for a PDF description of the chair from the British Museum.

September 2002 - "The Fin Project: From Swords Into Plowshares," Pelican Harbor, North Bay Village, Miami, Florida (USA). Made from 24 surplus fins of nuclear attack submarines by scupltor John T. Young. Similar monument in Seattle, Washington.

Date? - Monumento à Paz / Peace Monument, Praça do Imigrante / Immigrant Square, Novo Hamburgo, Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil). "Also called Monument to Disarmament. Was made from a disarmament campaign in the city, where several segments joined to a manifesto against violence. The memorial is a large bird taking the weapons away. By artist Marciano Schmitz."

After 2007 - "Monument to Disarmament & Life," Parque Tercer Milenio / Third Millennium Park, Bogota (Columbia). Across from the Institute of Forensic Medicine. "The 5,682 firearms collected during 14 days of disarmament between 1996 and 2007 are now [fused in] the base of a monument."

July 15, 2009 - Peace Monument, Kampala & Juba Road, Gulu (Uganda). To commemorate education’s importance in ensuring peace, The Dutch Embassy commissioned a sculpture conisting of three destroyed guns at the feet of a girl and boy reading a pile of text books. After speaking at length about education’s role in a post-conflict environment, the Dutch Ambassador, Jeroen Verheul, celebrated the sculpture’s unveiling by hosting a lunch for local community leaders. The books, Verheul noted, portrayed education as a pillar of knowledge, an instrument of reconciliation and a basis for moral building.

Future - Peace & Love Tower, downtown Manhattan, New York City, New York (USA). UnGun.org has been collecting guns for over 3 years, and the main structure will be supported by 5,000,000 guns that have been donated to the cause. The structure will feature a top heavy design and the walls will act as one large greenhouse. Choski and Associates won the contract to build the structure in 2006.