The paper deals with artefacts – material works of architecture and sculpture – that are raised on battlefields to commemorate a military action, a victory, or a single hero. In the Mediaeval times churches and chapels were built on battlefields devoted to God in gratitude for victory, places of prayer for the fallen. The 19th c. in its rationalism operated with sculptural creations sometimes at a large architectural scale. Objects often were representations of meritorious persons. The 20th c. commemorates the victims with large cemetery complexes and monumental building arrays. Works dated in the 21st c. relate to situations of earlier history and no more are traditional figural monuments but try to create a spatial system of multisensory influence on the viewer. The paper presents cases of battlefields commonly concerned as historically most important. Existing commemorative arrays are characterized and their typology is proposed. Reflections on political manipulation with meaning and form of a monument are raised.

The paper deals with artefacts – material works of architecture and sculpture – that are raised on battlefields to commemorate a military action, a victory, or a single hero. In the Mediaeval times churches and chapels were built on battlefields devoted to God in gratitude for victory, places of prayer for the fallen. The 19th c. in its rationalism operated with sculptural creations sometimes at a large architectural scale. Objects often were representations of meritorious persons. The 20th c. commemorates the victims with large cemetery complexes and monumental building arrays. Works dated in the 21st c. relate to situations of earlier history and no more are traditional figural monuments but try to create a spatial system of multisensory influence on the viewer. The paper presents cases of battlefields commonly concerned as historically most important. Existing commemorative arrays are characterized and their typology is proposed. Reflections on political manipulation with meaning and form of a monument are raised.