Monumento a Giuseppe Garibaldi

In Mantua and in the Mantuan territory, Giuseppe Garibaldi has been venerated since the time he visited the city on 9 March 1867.
The expression of this devotion culminated in the erection of the monument.
After his death on 2 June 1882, while republicans and socialists quarrelled publicly for his political legacy, a committee of citizens and associations of different orientations formed immediately to plan for the monument, and they knew that the city’s moderate administration would support them.
The task was entrusted to the Veronese sculptor Peter Bordini (1854-1922), the sculptor of the first monument to the hero in Iseo (1883).
The Mantuan monument was erected in Piazza San Silvestro, which was called Piazza Garibaldi for the occasion (right now, it is known as Piazza Martiri di Belfiore).
At the ceremony on 29 May 1887, an extraordinary crowd was present.
The figure sculpted by Bordini portrays the general on foot, wearing his legendary poncho.
It evokes the contrasting positions of the regular army and the volunteer army that is particularly loved in our collective imagination.
In 1926, during a reconfiguration of the square in which the local administration intended to confer an accentuated fascist imprint, the monument was transferred to Piazza Mercato, the current Piazza dei Mille.
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