The huge complex was requested by Giuseppe Dozza (1901-1974), a partisan and Mayor of the liberation of Bologna, who gave the assignment to Piero Bottoni (1903-1973), leading exponent of Rationalism in Italy and close to the positions of Le Corbusier.
The original architecture and symbolism is emphasised by the copper leaf sculptures created by Genni Wiegmann Mucci (1895-1969) and Stella Korczynska (d. 1956).
When asked about how he intended to carry out the work, the architect answered "going under ground with the dead". Those partisans who died for freedom had to wake up with the return to democracy.
And in fact the concrete and metal work was shaped externally like a truncated cone with an industrial appearance, with an underground base accessed by three stairways.
Along a circular wall are situated the burial recesses containing the remains of the partisans. At the centre there is a pool adorned by a group of concrete figures that reach upwards, also by Bottoni.
On the inner walls of the cone and along the top edge are placed other statues that symbolise the ascension into heaven.
On the outer edge the phrase "free they climb to the heaven of glory" is repeated four times. Dozza rests in a monolithic granite sarcophagus placed in front of the monument, commissioned of Leone Pancaldi (1915-1995) by the city of Bologna.