At a time when the cult of architectural objects is often substituted for care in responding to social needs, it is necessary to call into question the role of monuments in society. The analyses of Henri Lefebvre and the Situationist International clarify the social functions of monuments and relate them to historical and aesthetic values. On the one hand, by its role in transmitting collective memory, its trans-functionality and its utility, the monument is symbolically indispensable. On the other hand, it is clearly a vehicle of repressive ideology. Because of the monument’s symbolic power, it must not only be understood as a reified object, but rather as a sort of cultural repository and social vector.