Peace Monuments
Dedicated in 1997
Right click image to enlarge.
February 28, 1997 - Taipei 228 Memorial Museum, Taipei (Taiwan). At the site of a former radio station that operated under Japanese and Kuomintang rule. Dedicated by mayor Chen Shui-bian on the 50th anniversary of the 228 Incident of 1947. Operated 1997-2000 by the private Taiwan Peace Foundation and thereafter by the Taipei city government. Not to be confused with the National 228 Memorial Museum which is 10 years younger.
April 27, 1997 - World Peace Bell, International Holistic University, Brasilia (Brazil). Offered after a visit to Japan by Pierre Weil [1924-2008], founder of International University for Peace (UNIPAZ) & City of Peace Foundation. One of 20 SPB's placed in 16 differenc countries by the World Peace Bell Association (WPBA) of Tokyo (Japan). Scan courtesy of WPBA.
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Memorial Day 1997 - “Gathering, Lasting Friendship, 1847-1997,” Vereins Kirche, Fredericksburg, Texas (USA). Dedicated as a part of the city's 150th anniversary celebration. Commemorates the signing of the Meusebach-Comanche Treaty in 1847. "The early German settlers became the only immigrant group to successfully negotiate peace with the Indians. It is said to be the only treaty between white settlers and Native Americans that was never broken." "Irene Marschall King, John Meusebach’s granddaughter, brought the original Meusebach-Comanche treaty document from Europe in 1970. She presented it to the Texas State Library, where it is now on display." Info courtesy of John Wilkins.
1997 - Peace Wall & Moon Gate, Lion & Lamb Peace Arts Center, Bluffton University, Riley Court (Lower Level), Spring Street, Bluffton, Ohio (USA). By Jon Barlow Hudson. "Replicates the Berlin Wall, a prison wall, a stockade wall & a memorial wall as an interactive art experience representing how we close people out, hold them in, or immortalize them with walls of various kinds." Names 68 peace activists. Entry #793 in the "Peace Movement Directory" by James Richard Bennett (2001).
1997 - Parque por la Paz Villa Grimaldi, Avenida Jose Arrieta, Penalolen, Santiago de Chile (Chile). Villa Grimaldi was a complex of buildings used for the interrogation and torture of political prisoners by DINA, the Chilean secret police, during the government of Augusto Pinochet [1915-2006].
1997 - Plaza of Peace & Friendship, Rotary Peace Park, Calle Iturbide, Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco (Mexico). Park, peace pole & plaque next to the main cathedral & city hall [El Palacio Municipal], according to Entry #1385 in the "Peace Movement Directory" by James Richard Bennett (2001). Not found when area combed in December 2006. Image scanned from Bennett.
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1997 - Eighth International Peace Garden, Pretoria (South Africa). "Dedicated to the end of apartheid." One of many International Peace Gardens in different countries. Prsented to Pretoria by Ljubljana (Slovenia).
1997 - Sagan Planet Walk, Ithaca, New York (USA). "Scale model of the solar system on a 5,000,000,000:1 scale... Carl Sagan [1934-19xx], of course, taught at Cornell (located in Ithaca) for many years, which is his connection to the town; hence the location for the memorial...But my favorite thing about the planet walk I don't have a photograph of. It isn't on the map; it isn't in Ithaca -- it doesn't even exist yet, and it probably never will. But there has been talk apparently about building a matching, to-scale monolith for Alpha Centauri, the nearest star to the Sun. It would be in Hawaii."
1997 - "Famine,", St. Stephen's Green, Custom House Quay, Docklands, Dublin (Ireland). By Edward Delaney. This location is a particularly appropriate & historic as one of the first voyages of the Famine period was on the 'Perserverance' which sailed from Custom House Quay on St. Patrick's Day 1846. The Steerage fare on the ship was £3 and 210 passengers made the historical journey. They landed in New York on the 18th May 1846. All passengers and crew survived the journey. Click here for Wikipedia's "List of memorials to the Great Famine."
September 1997 - Broken Chair, Palais des Nations, Geneva (Switzerland). "Handicap International unveiled the 12 meter high wooden sculpture made by Swiss artist Daniel Berset, in support of the global movement to eradicate landmines. A daily reminder of the governments' commitment to fully universalize and adhere to the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty, including providing assistance to landmine victims and clearance of mine-affected land." International Campaign to Ban Landmines & Jody Williams shared the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize.
September 21, 1997 - Pax-Stien / "Pax" (Peace Memorial), near Lindesnes, Vest-Agder (Norway). At southernmost point of the Norwegian mainland. "On 21st October 1942, M/S Palatea, a German ship carrying prisoners of war, was torpedoed off Lindesnes lighthouse. 915 Russian prisoners & 71 Germans perished." /// "Unveiled by King Harald V of Norway, the memorial monument was designed by sculptor Arne Vinje Gunnerud [1930-2007]. It consists of a Common Buzzard in bronze with unfolded wings, on a platform of natural rock. A 986-strong choir, one singer for every life lost on the ship, sang at the unveiling of the monument." /// "The statue is of 'Russian bird' of the kind woodcut by so many russian prisoners-of-war during the war [sic]."
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EOctober 4, 1997 - Gandhi Tree of Knowledge, Shapiro Undergraduate Library, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan (USA). "A memorial to Gandhi's life & teachings. Result of the joint effort of the Indian American Student Association & Project Serve. Assistant Provost & Director of the Office of Academic Multicultural Initiatives John Matlock, who [attended the dedication], stressed that activism can appear in a variety of forms & that students can make it a daily part of their lives."
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LOctober 12, 1997 - Friedensglocke des Alpenraumes / Peace Bell of the Alpine Region , Hotel Habhof, Mösern bei Seefeld, Upper Inntal Valley (Austria). Commemorates the 25th anniversary of the ARGE ALP agreement signed in Mösern by eleven Alpine states to "seek joint solutions in the fields of culture & economy, agriculture & traffic." Rings every day at 5:00 pm. Cast at the Grassmayr Foundry in nearby Innsbruck. Second image shows spectacular view from the bell of the Inn River Valley.
October 22, 1997 - Bust of Mahatma Gandhi, Saughton Winter Garden, Saughton Park, Edinburgh (Scotland). Sculpted by Kirti Mandir (Kenyan born British citizen of Indian origin working in Glenbuck, Ayrshire). "Unveiled by Dr. Indrakumar Gulzar, Prime Minister of India, in the presence of Mr. Goyel, Consul General of India for Scotland, & the Lord Provost of Edinburgh." Information courtesy of Kirti Mandir 06Jan13.
October 26, 1997 - Gandhi Foundation USA, 215 Stoney Ridge Drive, Alpharetta, Georgia (USA). "Founded in anticipation of the statue of the Mahatma Gandhi... The purpose of the foundation is to be an activist organization focusing to focus entirely on the practical application of the philosophies of Gandhi and King..."
November 4, 1997 - Cristo de la Concordia / Christ of Peace, San Pedro Hill, Cochabamba (Bolivia). Statue of Jesus Christ accessible by cable car, or by climbing 2,000 steps. The statue is 34.20 metres (112.2 ft) tall, on a pedestal of 6.24 metres (20.5 ft), for a total height of 40.44 metres (132.7 ft). The statue is slightly larger than Christ the King in Swiebodzin (Poland) if the 2 metres (6.6 ft) high crown of Christ the King is not counted & Christ the Redeemer outside Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), making it the largest statue of Jesus Christ in the world. It is the third largest statue in the Southern Hemisphere, after the statue of Virgen de la Paz (Venezuela) & the statue of Saint Rita of Cascia (Brazil). The left hand of the statue points to the South, and the right points to the North.
November 1997 - Holocaust Monument, Egnatia & Papanastiou Streets, Thessaloniki (Greece). ""Dedicated by the Greek people to the memory of the 50,000 Jewish Greeks of Thessaloniki, deported from their Mother City by the Nazi occupation forces in the Spring of 1943 & exterminated in the gas chambers of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camps." "Only a few hundred members of what was once the largest Jewish community in Greece lived to return home..."
December 12, 1997 - Plaque for 50th Anniversary of the Marshall Plan, Hotel Tallyrand, Paris (France). George C. Marshall [1880-1959] received the 1953 Nobel Peace Prize.
December 1997 - Bradford City of Peace Plaque, Centenary Square, Bradford (England). Dedicated on the occasion of the International Peace Run (Hindu Marathon).
