حكاية تمثال الخديوي اسماعيل بالإسكندرية وكيف تغيرت ذاكرة الأمة

قناة وقال الراوي

توضح المصادر الرحلة التاريخية لتمثال الخديوي إسماعيل في الإسكندرية، بدءًا من دوافع إقامته التي تمحورت حول تعزيز العلاقات المصرية الإيطالية وتخليد زيارة الملك فؤاد الأول لإيطاليا. تتناول النصوص الدور المحوري للجالية الإيطالية في تمويل وصناعة التمثال، الذي نحته بيترو كانونيكا وصُب في روما، وكيف أُزيح الستار عنه عام 1938. كما تشرح المصادر الأسباب السياسية وراء إزالة التمثال عام 1966 في عهد جمال عبد الناصر، بعد أن تحول الميدان الذي يضمه إلى رمز للتحرر من الاحتلال الإنجليزي في عهد الملك فاروق. أخيرًا، تسرد النصوص فترة إهماله ومحاولة صهره عام 1996، وكيف تم نقله لاحقًا إلى موقعه الحالي في كوم الدكة، ليعكس إعادة تقييم أهميته التاريخية كجزء من التراث المصري.  اسمع الدردشة للنهاية ولا تنسى التأكيد على اشتراكك بقناة #وقال_الراوي وتفعيل التنبيهات 🔔 ليصلك الجديد.

Transcript

00:00Today we will dive together into the story of a very special statue in Alexandria.

00:04Statue of Khedive Ismail

00:06The sources we have show us the complete journey of this statue.

00:09I mean, from the beginning, it was just an idea, why did it work at all?

00:13And then how could it be removed in such strange circumstances?

00:15And it was about to melt

00:17Until he reached his current position

00:19Our goal today is to reveal the full story.

00:22All this volatile history behind the statue

00:25This statue in particular has a story like a mirror.

00:28Reflecting major political and social changes

00:32Who came back to Egypt

00:33We will see how one symbol can have a completely different meaning.

00:37I mean, with time and circumstances

00:39Ok, let's start from the beginning

00:41In 1927, King Fuad I visited Italy.

00:46Sources say the visit was very successful and the reception was warm.

00:50The Italian community in Alexandria was the second largest community at the time after the Greeks.

00:55Oh right, they were very influential at the time.

00:58They understood the idea of this statue

01:01As a way to strengthen relations and as a token of friendship

01:03This shows us the size of the frame role in Alexandria at that time.

01:06Not only the community, I mean

01:08But the cultural and economic impact as well.

01:11The idea is that an initiative like this comes from them.

01:14This in itself has a significance.

01:16Okay, why Ismail specifically and not anyone else?

01:19For many reasons, honestly.

01:20First of all, his relationship with the Italians was good.

01:24They are used a lot in large projects.

01:26For example, you have Alverdi's Opera Clinic.

01:28Not to mention that he chose Napoli as well.

01:31Of course, there was a desire from King Fouad himself.

01:34He remembers his father

01:35The details are also amazing, honestly.

01:37The Italian community collected the donations themselves.

01:41The sculptor was a very famous Italian artist.

01:45Pietro Canonica

01:46Ah Canonica is a really great artist.

01:48And the architectural design around the statue

01:51The engineer Ferrucci Pak had

01:53Roman style design

01:54Even the material itself

01:56The marble base came specially from the Carrara quarries in Italy.

01:59The statue itself was erected in Italy.

02:01This is even the composition itself.

02:03The statue was erected by Italian engineers and workers.

02:06They directed volunteer work in Alexandria

02:08Really great effort

02:09The statue was completed in 1935.

02:11But the opening was delayed for about three years, right?

02:15yeah

02:16Delayed due to the death of King Fuad

02:18Face of his grandson King Farouk

02:20He was the one who opened it and they held a big celebration in December 1938.

02:24Egyptian and Italian officials attended.

02:28I mean the beginning was very festive.

02:30From here, the world began to take on a completely different shape.

02:34The strange thing is that the change is as the sources say.

02:37It started years before the statue itself was removed.

02:401947

02:42Note that this was still during the reign of King Farouk.

02:45Yes, this point is really important.

02:47Because many people are always linked to Abdel Nasser

02:50Exactly

02:50In 1947, the same square, Khedive Ismail Square

02:54I became a Tuscarian on the occasion of the British evacuation

02:58This happened after the Egyptian government took over the British camps.

03:02So, why is the field still with us?

03:05The statue is still there

03:06This transformation was due to the symbolism of the place, and it preceded the removal of the statue itself by years.

03:11We can say that this was an early indicator of the decline of national sentiment.

03:16The view of these symbols changed even before Image 52

03:20As for the removal, it happened in 1966.

03:24Oh, this was in the late era of Abdel Nasser

03:27Yes, by decision of the governor of Alexandria at the time, Mohamed Hamdy Ashour

03:31The statue was moved to the backyard of the Museum of Fine Arts in Moharram Bek.

03:36The Italian writing on the shawl and its place is written in Arabic

03:40Exactly, my imagination has become this transformation

03:42From a symbol of friendship with Italy

03:44The square celebrates national independence

03:47And then the statue itself became a rejected symbol.

03:49Because it is considered part of the royal era and foreign influence

03:52A really strange story. The same statue has different meanings.

03:56This makes us always think about our relationship with the past.

03:59How do we re-read and interpret its symbols every now and then?

04:02The story did not end with the removal and transfer to the store.

04:06No, of course not. There is another, stranger chapter.

04:08What is the subject of this melting pot?

04:10I still can't believe this story

04:121996

04:14The statue has been lying in the warehouse for 30 years.

04:18Yes, and the currency exchange office will come

04:20Imagine a currency exchange rate

04:22Submit your official request to melt this statue.

04:25Another statue is of Nabar Pasha

04:27Oh, good news

04:29Melt down a historical statue like this

04:31for him?

04:31I mean, their justifications at the time were not very clear in the sources.

04:34But mostly in the eyes of ND it was just worthless scrap metal.

04:40They can benefit from the metal.

04:41Of course, this caused a big stir at the time.

04:43very

04:44Intellectuals and artists strongly objected.

04:47The issue reached Parliament

04:49There was an interrogation of the Minister of Culture at the time, Farouk Hosni.

04:52The issue has become so big that even the Italian government itself...

04:55I sent a formal protest

04:57She offered to buy the statue and return it to Italy.

04:59They landed in a square in Rome.

05:01So the Italian government's intervention is what saved them?

05:04Pretty much ah

05:05The uproar and the intervention stopped the melting attempt.

05:08We can say that this incident was the beginning of a greater awareness of the value of all antiquities.

05:14Even if it goes through controversial historical periods

05:17In the end, the statue found a new place.

05:19Yes, during the era of Governor Abdel Salam Al-Mahjoub

05:22The statue was moved to its current location in Kom El-Dikka.

05:25Behind the Roman Theater

05:27The place itself has developed and become more suitable for it.

05:30Today this statue

05:31One of the four main representations in Alexandria

05:33Officially registered as an antiquity

05:35Meaning Muhammad Ali and Saad Zaghloul

05:38Nabar Pasha and Ismail

05:40A long and up-and-down journey, to be honest.

05:42So if we look at the whole journey of this statue

05:46A symbol of Egyptian-Italian friendship began

05:48And then his square became a symbol of national liberation.

05:52Then the statue itself was rejected as a symbol of the ancient covenant.

05:56It literally melted

05:57In the end, it returned and remained a historical monument of recognized value.

06:01Exactly, this story sums it up very well.

06:04On the relationship of societies to their history and symbols

06:07So, what does all this make one think about?

06:09Can we conclude with an open question?

06:12How does any society choose what exactly from its history?

06:16Who celebrates it and makes it a symbol in public places

06:19How do these choices change significantly over time?

06:22With the change of political and social ideas

06:24And most importantly, what role do these statues and memorials play?

06:28In shaping our collective memory of the past

06:30Does it reflect history or create it?

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended