The story of this place
On November 11, 1934, 300,000 people—one-third of Melbourne's entire population—gathered for the Shrine's dedication ceremony. The crowd was so vast that people stood on rooftops and hung from windows to witness the moment. The Shrine's most powerful feature is hidden in its design: at exactly 11am on Remembrance Day (November 11), a ray of sunlight passes through an aperture in the roof to illuminate the word 'LOVE' on the Stone of Remembrance. This occurs precisely at the moment the Armistice ended World War I in 1918.
The building was inspired by the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and the Parthenon in Athens. Built during the Great Depression, construction employed 150 men who worked in relays 24 hours a day to complete Victoria's memorial to the 114,000 Victorians who served in World War I.