The monument to Alessandro Manzoni stands in the middle of piazza Manzoni, in Lecco: a bronze statue of the writer seated with the manuscript of “The Betrothed” on his knees, inaugurated on 11 October 1891.
What it is like
The statue, by the Milanese sculptor Francesco Confalonieri, is 2.80 metres high and stands on a base about four and a half metres high, of red Baveno granite according to Lecco Tourism and of Baveno marble according to LeccoToday. On the base are three high reliefs with scenes from the novel: the abduction of Lucia, which Lecco Tourism’s text calls the guilt; the wedding of the betrothed, the victory of innocence; and a scene at the lazaretto, which for Lecco Tourism is the death of Don Rodrigo and for LeccoToday Renzo at the lazaretto. On the side facing the Resegone are the arms of Italy and of Lecco and the citizens’ epigraph.
How it came about
After Manzoni’s death, in 1873, Lecco’s town council voted for a monument, but the initiative stalled for years. It restarted when the monument to Garibaldi, by the same Confalonieri, was quickly put up in Lecco and inaugurated in 1884: the rivalry between the committee of Garibaldians and Mazzinians and the Catholic one for Manzoni was called “the war of the statues” (LeccoToday). In 1885, the centenary of Manzoni’s birth, Abbot Antonio Stoppani relaunched the project with a national appeal. The 1887 competition was annulled and the choice fell on Confalonieri.
The inauguration
The monument was inaugurated on 11 October 1891. Stoppani had died on 1 January of that year: after the address by Senator Gaetano Negri a piece by Stoppani was read, prepared a year earlier for fear of not seeing the statue finished (LeccoToday and the Digiteca of the Biblioteca civica). Giosuè Carducci took part in the ceremony and, according to Lecco Tourism, gave the “speech of Lecco” on Manzoni at the Croce di Malta hotel; according to Digiteca it was Carducci who read Stoppani’s text.
Where it ended up
The sources also differ on the position. Lecco Tourism says the monument is still in its original place, in the middle of the square with the Resegone behind it; LeccoToday writes instead that over time the statue has been moved a few times, because of traffic decisions and the covering of the Caldone stream.
Practical information
- Piazza Manzoni, in the centre of Lecco, a few steps from piazza Garibaldi. It is a public space, always visible.
- It is part of the Manzoni’s Lecco itinerary; for the writer’s home there is Villa Manzoni.
Sources
- Lecco Tourism, Piazza Manzoni e il suo monumento
- LeccoToday, «Il Monumento ad Alessandro Manzoni: dalla volontà alla realizzazione» (20 March 2023)
- Digiteca (Regione Lombardia), «L’inaugurazione del monumento ad Alessandro Manzoni in Lecco», Biblioteca civica Pozzoli
- Wikivoyage, Luoghi manzoniani (coordinates)
