Monuments dedicated to the memories and decoration of the City

The War Memorial

Placed in the northern part of the lower gardens of Corso Mombello, at the crossroads with Via Roma, it was dedicated to the Fallen of the War 1915-1918.

The initiative to erect a war memorial in Sanremo had already been taken in January 1921 by the Associazione Nazionale Mutilati e Invalidi di Guerra (National Association of the Disabled and Invalids of War), presided over by the accountant Aldo Ravina, who on 20th March of the same year was also appointed chairman of the Executive Committee for the realisation of the monument.

The Committee, later chaired by Professor Antonio Canepa and Mayor Bensa, began to collect the necessary funds for the erection of the monument, to which Queen Margherita also contributed. She managed to obtain 80 quintals of bronze scrap metal from the State Railways at a price reduced by 40%.

In order to further increase the collection of the necessary funds, a large lottery was held with a Fiat 520 car worth 25,000 lire as a prize and awarded to Mr Ernesto Cavallero Lastress.

The project had been entrusted to the sculptor Vincenzo Pasquali who worked on the casting of the work, for which a fee of 175,000 lire was paid.

In June 1923 everything was almost finished and the mayor Bensa, accompanied by the vice president of the Committee Giovanni Boeri, was received in Rome by King Vittorio Emanuele III, who accepted the invitation to come to Sanremo to attend the inauguration of the monument.

The six-metre high statue stands on a trapezoidal parallelepiped base resting on four steps and framed at the top by a bronze lictor's fasces running around all four sides, ending with a pyramidal structure that acted as a support for the imposing six-metre high bronze sculptural group depicting Winged Victory, a woman on a rearing horse brandishing a sword, with condottieri at her feet.

On the front side is the dedication to the fallen and on the other three the names of the redeemed cities, Trento and Trieste, and that of Rome.

On 12 November 1923 the King arrived in Sanremo from Racconigi accompanied by Prince Umberto and General Cittadini, his aide-de-camp.

Welcomed at the railway station by the high commissioner of the FFSS (State Railways) Torre, representing the government, by the prefect of the Duke Borea d'Olmo palace, by Senator Marsaglia and by the city authorities, he then reviewed the units of the 42nd Infantry Regiment and twelve music bands, while the battleship Duilio, anchored in the harbour roadstead together with the destroyer San Martino, fired twenty-one blank cannons.

Vittorio Emanuele III then arrived in Corso Umberto and took his place on the authorities' box next to the Queen Mother.

Immediately afterwards, the veil covering the monument, the work of the sculptor Vincenzo Pasquali, was removed, while the bands sang the Piave anthem. After the bishop of Ventimiglia Ambrogio Daffra had blessed the monument, the official speaker for the ceremony was Corrado Marchi, editor of Genoa's Corriere Mercantile, who gave a heartfelt salute to Sanremo's fallen soldiers, while all the representatives of the province's fighting, workers', Catholic, professional and sports associations paraded in front of the royal box.

At the end of the ceremony, the king went to the Russian church to visit the tombs of his in-laws and then to the Casino Municipale, where he received the homage of the main personalities of the local political world, including Sultan Mohammed VI, with whom the king had a brief conversation.
At around 12 noon, Victor Emmanuel III finally went to the railway station, where he boarded the royal train, leaving immediately for Bordighera to join the Queen Mother and the Crown Prince.

Unfortunately, during the Second World War, due to a shortage of metal suitable for casting weapons, the bronze statue was removed from its pedestal and diverted to the Metal Collection Centre.

The work was destined for casting, but its end was always shrouded in mystery, so much so that it seems to have ended up in a municipal depot instead, where it remained abandoned until the Liberation, but this too has never been ascertained.

Since then, it has been forgotten.

It was never replaced again until, on 2 June 2018, on the occasion of Republic Day, , thanks to the generous donation of Mrs Elsa Ausenda and her husband Renato Carlo, who died years ago, it was possible to place a copy of the original monument on the base.

With the authorisation of the Municipality of Sanremo and the Superintendency of Cultural Heritage of Genoa, and also thanks to the efforts of the Denuzzo Gallery and the architect Gianni Salesi, the work was commissioned to the Master of Art Domenico Sepe, Neapolitan by origin, who, before starting the work, studied the original sketch preserved in the Civic Museum.

The inauguration ceremony took place at 9.30 a.m. starting from Piazza Colombo with a parade of ANPI representatives, arriving at 9.45 a.m. at the Monument, at the crossroads between Via Roma and Corso Mombello where the bronze group was unveiled in the presence of some Authorities and many ex-combatants.

Many townspeople were also present, not only for the solemnity of the moment but also for their curiosity to look at the plinth, which for many years they had seen as a monk, restored with a work they had only heard about.

The idea of placing a bronze group on the pedestal of the Monument to the Fallen, which had been orphaned of its statue for some time, and which, at least in spirit, would match it, came from Mr Marco Renato Carlo.

Carlo took part in the Second World War as part of the "Pieve di Teco", a glorious Alpine unit that distinguished itself both during the Great War and the last one.
It was a local conscription and many of the Alpine soldiers who took part in it came from the province, including Carlo who, having returned from captivity in Germany, wished to remember his many fallen comrades-in-arms by donating to the Municipality of Sanremo the sum, obtained from a collective collection, also promoted by other volunteers, needed to rebuild the city's War Memorial.

His work, as mentioned, was then brought to a successful conclusion by his widow, Elsa Ausenda.

(free elaboration from texts by various authors and writings from the pages of our Facebook Group; images from the Web and private archives)

The Monument to Giuseppe Garibaldi

Following the news of Garibaldi's death on 2 June 1882 at Caprera, subscriptions and donations to erect monuments in honour of the hero multiplied throughout Italy. Numerous workers' and popular societies opened subscriptions among their members for the same purpose, followed by several municipal administrations.

San Remo did not want to be outdone and already on 7 June the municipal council appointed a special commission, made up of twelve councillors, to promote a public subscription for the erection of a monument to Garibaldi in our city.
After a decade in which the matter was essentially dropped, on 5 January 1892 the new mayor Alessandro Escoffier appointed another commission for the monument composed of eleven members.

At the commission's second meeting on 15 March 1892, a number of engravings of monuments provided by the Sonzogno publishing house in Milan were examined.

In the meantime, various sketches were also examined, including one presented by the Genoese sculptor working in Rome Filippo Giulianotti, and three others that had been exhibited in the lobby of the Principe Amedeo Theatre, while the administration received printed matter and offers from Ettore Ximenes and Oldofredi in the same period.

The municipal authorities, in search of a prestigious name, proposed that the monument be erected by the sculptor Odoardo Tabacchi, already known in the city for having created the statue of Tuffolina and that of Cica-Cica, then located in the town hall in Piazza Nota.

It was precisely this last work that prompted the municipal administration to ask Tabacchi, who, since only a maximum of eight thousand lire was available, was offered to take back his Cica-Cica as partial payment and to create the monument to the hero for the remaining amount.

In a letter sent by the Accademia Albertina in Turin on 21 May 1893, the sculptor declared his willingness to make the exchange on condition that he would not be competing with other sculptors. In fact, in the following years, other letters of proposal would reach the municipal administration, including two from the Lombard sculptor Giuseppe Cerini in 1894 and one from the Sanremo sculptor Filippo Ghersi in 1897.


Although another commission was appointed in 1897, consisting of the architect Pio Soli, Angelo Nota and Giacomo Drago, who declined the invitation, no decision was taken.
The Cica-Cica therefore remained the property of the municipal administration, while the task of creating the monument was entrusted in 1903 to Emilio Di Ciolo, a mediocre local sculptor, who was then teaching drawing and ornamental plastic figures at the San Remo Workers' Federation.
The artist offered the municipal administration the life-size sketch of the future monument free of charge, declaring that he would accept the sum of only 14,000 lire as compensation for the finished work, made of bronze and red granite from Baveno.
At first, the administration seemed to agree with Di Ciolo's requests, and he also involved Gusmano Vignali's Florentine artistic foundry in the estimates.

In 1904, it was decided to appoint a new commission to evaluate Di Ciolo's work. The sculptor Pietro Canonica, well known in the city, declined the invitation to join the commission, while Pio Soli, the Florentine sculptor Ezio Ceccarelli and the Turin painter Giacomo Grosso gave their consent. As the administration decided to get rid of the petulant local sculptor as soon as possible, the commission quickly rejected the project and proposed to reimburse Di Ciolo the sum of 1,000 lire for the sketch, even though it had initially been offered free of charge.

The Municipal Council eventually agreed to reimburse the Matuzian artist, but he would later lodge several complaints protesting the treatment he received.

In the summer of 1905, at the suggestion of Giacomo Grosso, the Piedmontese sculptor Leonardo Bistolfi, one of the most famous and highly regarded artists of the time, was finally commissioned to carry out the work. He accepted the commission despite his numerous commitments, perhaps also to recover from his rejection in the competition for the Milanese monument of the same name won by Ximenes.
At the municipal council meeting of 9 August 1905, the relevant agreement, which had been agreed upon two weeks earlier with the sculptor from Casale Monferrato, was approved.

In view of the inauguration of the monument, which took several years to complete due to Bistolfi's other pressing commitments, At its meeting of 8 February 1908, the municipal administration decided to entrust the Tuscan painter Plinio Nomellini with the task of designing the inauguration poster, Galileo Chini was invited to produce the illustrated programme for the event, and the Genoese artist Edoardo De Albertis was commissioned to produce a metal plaque for the monument.

Gabriele D'Annunzio, who had been contacted on 20 February 1908 in Rome by the editor of «Caffaro» Mario Maria Martini, was also chosen to give the inaugural speech.
However, the poet declined the invitation and so the administration decided to send three telegrams to Giovanni Pascoli inviting him to give one of the inaugural speeches.
Pascoli decided to accept the invitation, so much so that his name appeared in all the printed programmes and in Nomellini's poster, but he was unable to attend the event as he was forced to undergo a delicate operation in the very days in which he should have been in San Remo to give the official speech in front of the new monument.

At 8.30 p.m. on 25 April 1908 the celebrations for the inauguration of the monument, which was placed in an open space in the gardens of the Imperatrice promenade, opened with a speech by the man of letters and poet Giovanni Marradi, while the following morning the official speeches were made by the monument's author Leonardo Bistolfi, the socialist mayor of Sanremo Orazio Raimondo and the journalist and editor of the «Corriere della Sera» Giovanni Borelli.

Corriere della Sera of 27 April wrote: « ... ... at 11.00 a.m. the procession assembles in Piazza Colombo. A squad of carabinieri in full dress opened the parade; they were followed by Garibaldi's soldiers and veterans of their country's battles, the flags of the municipalities of Sanremo and Porto Maurizio, the town council of Sanremo, representatives of numerous Italian and French municipalities, almost all the societies, chambers of work and Ligurian socialist circles, a large number of Masonic lodges, especially French, and schools. A forest of flags appeared before the spectator's eyes: more than 200. The procession parades in an orderly fashion, to the sound of Garibaldi's hymn, through Via Vittorio Emanuele and Corso dell'Imperatrice, lined with flags and crowded with spectators who, following the procession, trample on the splendid flowerbeds around the monument, having found the free space occupied by more hurried spectators. The order service is extremely tiring, but there are no incidents to report. It is 11.40 a.m. The flags are barely gathered around the monument: the Garibaldians stand at attention, the trumpet blows, the cloth falls. The music sings the fateful hymn. The moment is solemn. The admiration of the crowd can be heard in the deep silence, which is immediately broken by roaring applause. Hats are waved from the grandstands, from the trees, from the ancient pines, which seem to bear clusters of fruit. Cheers are raised... ».

On 27 April, the poet Angiolo Silvio Novaro gave another speech in front of the town's schoolchildren, who had marched past the monument, whose inauguration was also attended by important writers and painters who at the time worked on the literary periodical «La Riviera Ligure» owned by the Novaro family, linked to the most authoritative exponents of the Italian decadent movement.

In the monument, Bistolfi wanted to depict the Hero of the Two Worlds, at a ripe old age, standing, looking towards his Caprera, leaning against and enveloped by the granite base, in a pensive attitude, his hair waving in the wind and his poncho wrapping his figure in noble and majestic tones.

At his feet are six bronze bas-reliefs depicting as many illustrative moments in Garibaldi's life: the island of Caprera, symbolised by a maiden in the waves (Elegy of Solitude); a wave that turns into two figures embracing (Love Song); a group of maidens portrayed while dancing (Voices of Joy); a male figure with a female one surrounded by seas and mountains (Cry of Freedom); some men running enthusiastically launched across the sea (The Hymn of the Thousand); triumph of a deceased warrior (The Hero).

Bistolfi's work thus greatly influenced a number of sculptors working in the city, including Jules Van Biesbroeck, who took up some of the Piedmontese sculptor's characteristic motifs in the tomb of Catherine Coudlougon, where Bistolfi's influence can be seen above all in the subtle flashes of light that emerge in the bronze volume of the monument.

During the Second World War, some people suggested casting the monument in order to obtain metal for cannons (a fate that had befallen Vincenzo Pasquali's statue above the war memorial in Corso Mombello in 1942) but fortunately the proposal was not followed up, thanks also to the intervention of a group of courageous citizens led by the San Remo painter Carlo Alberto, who had the monument hidden in a depot in Via Ruffini until the end of the war.

Recently, following a gradual deterioration of the monument, a careful and accurate restoration of both the statue of the Hero and its base has been carried out, restoring its original splendour and shine.

(source: taken from an article by Andrea Gandolfo on "Riviera24.it" of 10/01/2018; images from the web and private archives)

Monument to the Fallen of Cephalonia

The Monument dedicated to the Fallen of Cephalonia, a work by Professor  Renzo Orvieto (partisan, sculptor and painter from Piedmont with ties to the City of Flowers), is located in the centre of the lower flowerbed of Corso Mombello, towards the junction with Via Nino Bixio.

It commemorates the extreme resistance and extermination of the "Acqui" Division in Cephalonia and Corfu which, following the armistice of 8 September 1943, refused to surrender to the Nazis.
The few survivors were taken prisoner and sent to concentration camps.

It was inaugurated on 23 September 1979 during a solemn ceremony, held on the occasion of the 36th anniversary of the massacre, which was attended by many veterans and citizens, who attended the greeting of the mayor of Sanremo Osvaldo Vento and the official speech of the president of the National Association of veterans and families fallen of the "Acqui" Division, General Renzo Apollonio.
A marble plaque placed under the statue of the monument bears the inscription: «Even in the earth always rise the just».

For the analogy near the work of Orvieto was placed by the Municipal Administration on January 27, 2012, Memorial Day for not forgetting, a slate plaque in memory of the I.M.I. (Italian Military Interned).

It was strongly desired by Mr. Gerolamo Merlo, to remember the I.M.I. sanremaschi and in particular his brother, Stefano Merlo, deported from Split after 8 September 1943 and died of hardship at only 24 years on January 18, 1945 in the extermination camp of Fullen, West Germany.

After many bureaucratic difficulties, but thanks to the support of the ANPI, the Historical Institute of Resistance and associations of former combatants, the slab was finally approved by the municipal administration and inaugurated by its promoter, placing it next to the already present and majestic Monument of the Fallen of Cephalonia, as they are similar events.
During the inauguration ceremony, in the presence of Deputy Mayor Claudia Lolli, the story of the I.M.I. was explained in detail by Dr. Gustavo Ottolenghi and Amelia Narciso, representing the ANPI.
Since then, annual celebrations have been held at these two monuments.

The slab is made of black slate, measuring one meter by one meter, and bears carved in white the preface to the book «Se questo è un uomo» (If This is a Man) by Primo Levi, an Italian chemist and writer of Jewish origin, who suffered in the Auschwitz lager from February 20, 1944 until the liberation of the camp by the Red Army on January 27, 1945.

« You who live safely/ in your tepid homes...consider if this is a man/ working in the mud...dying for a yes or a no...ponder that this was/ I command you these words/ carve them in your heart...repeat them to your children ».

Under it the dedication to the I.M.I. from Sanremo deported to concentration camps after September 8, 1943.

(sources: testimony of Mrs Francesca Viale, granddaughter of the promoter of the slab;
History&Arts&Culture;
"Sanremo Guide to the artistic and monumental heritage of the city";
 images from the web and private archives)

Monument to the Resistance

The Monument was originally placed in the centre of the square in front of it, as a symbolic replacement for the monumental fountain formed by the three M's of Mussolini from the Fascist era, which stood at that point: with the restoration work on the gardens it had to be moved slightly from the centre of the square to make room for the archaeological finds below.

The work, created by Sanremo sculptor and painter Renzo Orvieto, represents a half-naked man with his hands tied to a tree, probably an olive tree, bent forward after being shot. The sculptural group is made of bronze and measures five metres by five metres, with a depth of 3.20 metres. The placement of the monument directly on a grassy carpet, without a pedestal, is meant to symbolise the special bond that united the partisan with the land.

It was unveiled on 2 June 1972 during an event held on the occasion of Republic Day, attended by over seven thousand people.
The inauguration ceremony of the monument, donated by Orvieto himself to the Municipality of Sanremo and placed in a special green space along the Giardini Vittorio Veneto next to the fort of Santa Tecla, was attended by delegates from partisan associations and ordinary citizens.
partisan associations and ordinary citizens from various regions of northern and central Italy, from Yugoslavia and France, as well as the gonfalons of the municipalities of Cuneo, Boves, Milan, Genoa, Domodossola, Sesto San Giovanni, Gorizia, Marzabotto, Vittorio Veneto, Ravenna and Stazzema, all towns decorated with the Gold Medal for Military Valour for partisan activities.

During the ceremony the mayor of Sanremo Piero Parise, the national president of the ANPI (Associazione Nazionale Partigiani d'Italia - National Association of Partisans of Italy) Arrigo Boldrini and the undersecretary for Foreign Affairs Angelo Salizzoni, who recalled how the war of Liberation had been a great popular movement and stressed the need to be vigilant to prevent the values of the Resistance from being betrayed, gave the official speeches for the inauguration of the monument.

Historical note:
During the period of the Resistance against Nazi-Fascism, Liguria, like the rest of Italy, was divided into zones in which homogeneous groups of partisan fighters operated.

Our zone was the "first Zona LIguria" and operated from September 1943 to April 1945, as is well explained in the descriptive panel in front of the statue.

It extended from the Roja torrent (Latte di Ventimiglia) to the Pennavaire torrent (Ceriale) and all the relative hinterland; for partisan activity the Gonfalone of the province of Imperia was decorated with the Gold Medal for Military Valour,

« consecrating the heroic sacrifice of the people of the "first zone of Liguria" who, through armed struggle, freed their land from the oppression of Nazi-Fascism, redeeming the honour of our country through the Resistance ».

Six of our Gold Medals of Remembrance have been awarded to six young Partisans who heroically sacrificed their lives: the youngest of them was only 14 years old.
Divisions of fighters from different political parties took part in the struggle and among them we remember the names and exploits of the Commanders of the Garibaldi divisions who worked here: among the many, we remember Felice Cascione, "U Megu", author of "Fischia il vento" (Fischia il vento), the symbolic song of the Imperia Resistance, Silvio Ronfante, the "Cion" who died in Upega, Nino Siccardi, U' "Cürtu", Gino Napolitano. "Gino", and Guglielmo Vittorio, "Vittò": the gardens where this monument stands and those in front of Forte Santa Tecla were dedicated to the latter two, respectively.
So that the elderly may remember and the young may know.

The inscription carved on a stone slab at its base reads:
« 25 April 1945/Heroes without uniforms/humble and proud/they make war on wars and oppressors/heroes of all time/poets and workers find death/on a single nod united/to a capestro united always in resistance ».

(sources: from the book "Sanremo Guida al patrimonio artistico e monumentale della città" (Sanremo Guide to the artistic and monumental heritage of the city); other sources; images from private archives and the Web)

Monuments to Italian Autieri

Last March, at the request of the Associazione Nazionale Autieri d'Italia, Sanremo section 'Pino Panizzi', represented by its president, Vittorio Morra, the Town Council decided to erect a stone monument in the garden between Via Ruffini and Corso Orazio Raimondo.

At first, the Association had requested the area facing the monument to the Fallen of Nassiryia in the stretch of cycle path parallel to Via Nino Bixio. Then, in agreement with the Municipality, the destination approved by the Council was chosen.

Finally, on the morning of today, 28 June 2018, at 10.30 a.m. to be precise, the monument of the Associazione degli Autieri di Sanremo was inaugurated. The Association was born at the end of the First World War when, in 1918, a group of veteran motorists, driven by the desire to find each other, promoted the initiative to set up an association to represent them.

And so in 1921, in Milan, the promoting committee founded the Associazione Nazionale Automobilisti in Congedo (ANAC).
In 1951, the Associazione Autieri d'Italia (Association of Italian Military Car Drivers) was founded in Rome and, from the merger of the two associations, the Associazione Nazionale Autieri d'Italia (ANAI) was born on 23 November 1952, with its headquarters in Rome.

Since then ANAI has always been active and involved in the events of national life.

In addition to President Vittorio Morra, the ceremony was attended by the city's main authorities, including the president of the municipal council Alessandro Il Grande and councillor Mauro Menozzi, as well as the Carabinieri, Alpini, Navy and paratroopers.

Don Goffredo Sciupa then blessed the monument, followed by maestro Venturelli singing the notes of silence.

(Source: text and images from "Sanremonews.it" of 28 June 2018; images from the web and private archives)

Monument to Orazio Raimondo

The idea of erecting a monument to Orazio Raimondo in Sanremo began to take shape only a few weeks after the sudden death of the lawyer and politician from Matuzzo, when the proposal was particularly supported by a group of friends and admirers of the deceased.

In February 1920 a national committee of honour was set up to promote the erection of the monument, with the participation of illustrious personalities from the political, military and academic worlds, including Luigi Albertini, Giovanni Amendola, Ivanoe Bonomi, Enrico Caviglia, Mario Missiroli, Vittorio Emanuele Orlando and Antonio Salandra. At the same time an executive committee was founded in Sanremo, made up of authoritative representatives of local institutions, combatant associations, the press, student organisations and trade unions, with the aim of working towards the erection of the monument.

After the sculptor Vincenzo Pasquali had taken over the mask of the deceased and the fund-raising process had begun, the work was entrusted to Leonardo Bistolfi, who was already a close friend of Raimondo himself.
The Piedmontese sculptor thus created a bronze statue of the San Remo politician in the final phase of his artistic activity.

According to a rumour circulating at the time, Bistolfi, having completed the monument in 1932, having modelled only the bust, died the following year and his heirs had the rest of the figure added by an anonymous and mediocre sculptor.

However, the monument was only unveiled on the morning of 21 February 1960 in an open space in the municipal gardens along Corso Salvo D'Acquisto in front of the Morgana, in the presence of the highest local authorities and a large audience, who listened to the official oration given by the President of the Bar Association of Genoa, Andrea D'Andrea.

The Sanremo politician is portrayed standing with his right hand on his chest, in an oratorical attitude, on a pedestal placed on the base of the monument, which is devoid of bas-reliefs and on one side of which is engraved the simple inscription: "Sanremo to Orazio Raimondo 1875-1920".

(source taken from the book "Sanremo Guida al patrimonio artistico e monumentale della città";  images from the web and private archives)

Monument to Siro Andrea Carli

The monument was created by the local sculptor Filippo Ghersi, who as early as 1867 had the idea of creating a statue or bust of Siro Andrea Carli to be placed above a fountain, but the Municipality did not accept the proposal immediately, asking to see the sketch.

After more than twenty years, Ghersi, a pupil of Salvatore Revelli in Rome and an undisputed protagonist of Sanremo's figurative life since 1860, created a marble statue of Mayor Carli characterised by an explicit recourse to classicist models typical of the first half of the 19th century, which are however softened by a touch inspired by a genuine interpretation of 'social realism'.

At the end of 1889, Carli's statue was placed on a plinth under a wing of the former monastery of the Turchine and then officially inaugurated on 5 January 1890.

However, it was not until the last century that the monument was placed on top of one of the fountains Carli himself wanted in what is now Piazza Eroi Sanremesi, in accordance with the author's request and the technical opinion of engineer Giacomo Picconi.

On the pedestal of the monument the following inscription is engraved:
«Siro Andrea Carli / 1797 - 1857 / Mayor of Sanremo / Member of Parliament / philosopher, doctor, man of letters / distinguished benefactor / promoted studies / opened roads and avenues / donated riches of water / cooperated to the public good / with generosity of spirit».

 

(source taken from the book "Sanremo Guida al patrimonio artistico e monumentale della città";  images from the web and private archives)

Monument to the Fallen of All Wars

Inaugurated on 14 February 1982 on a flowerbed on one side of the open space between Via Ruffini and Corso Raimondo in the presence of the highest civil, military and religious authorities of the city and province,diplomatic agents and representatives of the main Armed Forces organisations and associations.

During the ceremony, ex-combatant lawyer Franco Ferrarsi gave the inaugural speech, which was introduced by the president of the Sanremo Combatants and Veterans Association Francesco Bronda, while the Bishop of Ventimiglia-Sanremo Angelo Raimondo Verardo delivered an intense homily after celebrating a Holy Mass before the monument was unveiled.

The monument, created by sculptor Pietro Lorenzoni, consists of a supine marble portrait of a fallen soldier, surmounted by a metal wing, while the part in front of the marble base of the monument bears the following inscription: "To the fallen of all wars and all homelands".

On the back side of the plinth is engraved a short poem dictated by Francesco Bronda and dedicated to the soldier's epic.

(source taken from the book "Sanremo Guida al patrimonio artistico e monumentale della città"; images from a private archive)

Statue of the "Primavera"

Corso Imperatrice, which is one of the most prestigious seaside promenades on the Riviera dei Fiori and one of the most famous in Europe, also because of its historical origins, is bordered on the side towards the sea by the "Passeggiata dell'Imperatrice" (Empress' Promenade), and in the middle of a carpet of flowers you can see what has become the symbol of Sanremo, that is the Statue of "Primavera", a young girl soaring amidst garlands of flowers, created by the sculptor Vincenzo Pasquali who created it in the early 1920s.

The same sculptor who should have executed several other important sculptural works in the city, including the statue of Saint Francis in front of the Capuchin church, the Monument to the Fallen (see above) in corso Mombello, and his two twins, the "Ondina", which, wandering in other places in the city, is now located in a flowerbed at the top of the gardens in corso Mombello and the "Goddess Flora" in the gardens of Villa Ormond.

The famous statue seems to have been created by  Vincenzo Pasquali by imitating the youthful and exuberant features of his very young daughter Italia, who died recently. However, she always denied having posed for her father, but some writings, recently found, confirm the truth.

Since then he has always remained in the same place, whatever the weather, the most admired and naturally photographed Monument in Sanremo.

Unfortunately it seems that there are people who have nothing better to do than to pick on the public heritage and in particular the "Primavera", with various acts of vandalism.

On 9 June 2017, vandals, who don't know whether they wanted to take home a trophy or were simply being hooligans, literally amputated the right foot of the statue.

Here is how the mayor Alberto Biancheri commented on the incident: «Last night they smashed the foot of the Primavera statue. I stared incredulously at the photo for a few minutes, wondering what could have been in your head to enjoy kicking a statue to smithereens. I couldn't come up with an answer, except to say that certain people, lacking in education, civic sense, and without the slightest respect for the beauty that surrounds us and that is so painstakingly maintained, should be forced to do long periods of community service in order to be fully re-educated, in addition to possible fines. In the meantime, and in the hope that someone may have seen the vandal responsible for the gesture, we have already started the procedures for restoration. The Primavera will soon return to its original beauty».
The municipality had to undertake a rather laborious and costly intervention to remedy this.

After this, although it still looks young, almost one hundred years after its birth, it was decided on 15 May 2019 to subject the statue to ordinary maintenance work as soon as possible.

But the vandalism did not cease, quite the contrary.
On 26 June 2019, the entire base of the statue was daubed with white paint.
The Municipality, which was informed of the facts by a report from some citizens and a local newspaper (Sanremonews), had to intervene again, adding this to the restoration already planned in May.

This logically slowed down the "restyling" work that the 'Matuzia' company of Sanremo had been contracted to do on the statue, but also for the routine maintenance of the buffer area, with the removal of the grass surface and the laying of non-woven fabric and the laying of round white Carrara gravel, as well as the edging.

The cost of the intervention was initially estimated at 3,900 euro, after the defacing, a higher sum was obviously allocated to clean the surface using specialist materials.

For the time being, the situation seems to have stabilised and the Statue is still resplendent in its beauty in the midst of the flower bed that separates the corso from the Passeggiata Imperatrice and its gardens.

(sources: online newspapers "Sanremonews.it", "RIVIERA24.it", texts by Andrea Gandolfo; images from the Web and private archives)