Giuseppe Siccardi, King Victor Emmanuel II's minister of Justice and Ecclesial affairs, made history with his 1850 decree which severely limited the Church's acquired privileges in favor of a secular State. To honor his memory, the city's more liberal minds organized a donation drive for the construction of piazza Savoia's obelisk, whose foundation stone was laid on June 17, 1852. Few know that within the obelisk itself were walled a copy of Siccardi's law, two issues of newspaper "La Gazzetta del Popolo", coins, breadsticks (a Turinese specialty), rice and a bottle of barbera. Upon the monument's completion, in 1853, its surface was inscribed with the names of the 800 donors that made it possible.