The National Monument to Italian Sailors was inaugurated in 1933 in the presence of King Vittorio Emanuele III. It was erected to honor the fallen of the First World War and in recognition of the city's merits as the site of a naval base on the lower Adriatic. Among the projects submitted to the specially organized national competition, the winning project was that of architect Luigi Brunati and sculptor Amerigo Bartoli. The monument represents a large oar with a memorial chapel at its base. The names of the sailors who died in the First World War, the numbers of those killed in the Second World War, and those of the civilian and military units that sank are engraved on the walls of the chapel. The bronze statue of Our Lady, Star of the Sea, is a work of art by Bartoli; it was inserted into the oar's tooth in 1954.