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Democracy Monument

Democracy Monument

Chitrasen Aphaiwong & Corrado Feroci

Photo: Nawit science · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Location
Ratchadamnoen Avenue, Bangkok, Thailand
Client / Owner
Government of Field Marshal Plaek Phibunsongkhram
Year
Completed 1940
Access
Public
Typology
Cultural

Bangkok's Democracy Monument stands on a traffic circle on Ratchadamnoen Avenue, at the Dinso Road intersection. Chitrasen Aphaiwong designed it, and Corrado Feroci made the relief sculptures at the base. It was commissioned in 1939 under Field Marshal Plaek Phibunsongkhram. Construction began in July 1939, and it opened on June 24, 1940. The page lists its style as Art Deco.

Its numbers carry meaning. The four wings are 79 feet (24 meters) high, and the base has a 24-meter radius, recalling June 24, 1932, the date of the coup. The turret is 9.8 feet (3 meters) tall for June, the third month of the Thai calendar. The 75 cannon stand for the year 2475.

A palm-leaf manuscript box holding the 1932 Constitution crowns the turret. Naga fountains and relief panels decorate the wings and bases. The traffic island is hard to reach on foot, and a Democracy Monument MRT station is being built beside it.

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