Memorial Architecture

Understanding Memorials and Monuments

The root meaning of the word memorial can be found in two Latin words: memoria, meaning “memory,” and memoriale, meaning “belonging to memory.” A memorial is an object, place, poem, song, or a service—for example, a school scholarship that helps people focus on and preserve the memory of an important event or a deceased person or a group of people.

Memorials may be spontaneous or traditional. Spontaneous memorials often arise as the first reactions to an unanticipated and violent loss of life. Flowers, candles, stuffed animals, pictures, notes, and other symbols of loss, shock, grief, and distress appear at or near the site of the tragedy. Public spaces may be transformed, for a brief period, into hallowed ground. Candlelight processions, prayer services, moments of silence, and vigils may be the first desperate efforts of beleaguered people to come to terms with the profound evil and chaos in the world. They need to feel less helpless and powerless. A spontaneous memorial reflects the human need to reach out to and connect with other human beings who share similar stunned feelings. Spontaneous memorials allow people to share their faith and hope that, by honoring and paying tribute to the memories of the dead and wounded, evil can be contained or overcome and that the world can be made a better, safer, and saner place. A spontaneous memorial is an opportunity for people to bond to one another and to draw strength and solace from each other.

Traditional memorials seek something more formal and somewhat more permanent to preserve the memories of the events and of the people affected by those events. Traditional memorials include funerals, religious ceremonies, eulogies, printed documents, recordings, and pictures. Frequently, traditional memorials aim to be something long lasting, such as a tree planting, a plaque, a sculpture, or a park. The memorial then serves as a gateway between the historical person of the past and a desire for everlasting memory. Some memorials turn into monuments with mass and structure and prominence. Every monument is some kind of a memorial, but not every memorial is a monument.

In the literature on memorials, the term memorial is closely linked to the word monument. The root of monument is also a Latin word, monere, meaning, “to remind or warn.” A monument is generally, but not always, considered to be a structure such as a headstone, a boundary marker, a statue, a tomb, a commemorative edifice, or even an entire building. Monuments are durable structures that are designed to impress and awe us as we commemorate an event, a success of great magnitude, or the death of someone deeply cherished by his or her contemporaries.

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