Verona, Zalando funds restoration of Dante monument in Piazza dei Signori

Zalando, the well-known e-commerce platform for fashion and clothing, has decided to make its contribution to the 700th anniversary of the death of Dante Alighieri (Florence, 1265 - Ravenna, 1321) by taking charge of the conservative restoration of the monument to the supreme poet located in the center of Piazza dei Signori in Verona. The initiative, titled Zalando celebrates Dante, a timeless style, finances the intervention on the work needed to sanitize the damaged portions of the marble, and also aims to celebrate the history of the monument and the poet with a message of positivity and closeness to the current context.

The statue in the Piazza dei Signori was unveiled on May 14, 1865: the work of Ugo Zannoni (Verona, 1836 - 1919), it is made of Carrara marble, is three meters high (the monument in all is seven meters high, considering the base), and was modeled after the monument to Dante in Piazza Santa Croce in Florence, by Enrico Pazzi. Zannoni, then just 29 years old, won the competition specially announced by the Academy of Agriculture, Science and Letters on the occasion of the sixth centenary of Dante’s birth. The work also took on a highly symbolic aspect from an anti-Austrian perspective (Veneto would be annexed to the Kingdom of Italy only the following year), as the monument to Dante was intended to affirm Veneto’s desire to free itself from the foreigner. Today, the “Achille Forti” Gallery of Modern Art in Verona preserves the bronze sketch of the work.

The monument to Dante. Ph. Credit Fidel Amos

The restoration site sponsored by Zalando

The conservation work on the monument is being carried out by the City of Verona - Edilizia Monumentale and Direzione dei Musei Civici: Zalando, as an official sponsor, is supporting the entire cost of the operation. Through the sponsorship of this project for the platform (which has 35 million active customers in 17 different markets, offering clothing, footwear, accessories and cosmetics), Zalando also intends to confirm the importance of the Italian market, on which it continues to invest in theottica of enhancing the territory and its very rich culture. The intervention aims to clean the surface to remove dusty deposits and air pollutants, biocide treatment to eliminate moss, lichens and other forms of biological colonies, and final protection of the stone to prolong the effects of the restoration over time.

“We are very proud to be able to contribute to the restoration of Dante Alighieri’s statue for the first time in more than 165 years and to support an Italian city in its cultural heritage,” says Riccardo Vola, Director Southern Europe & Gift Cards at Zalando. “Dante is considered the most representative poet of Italianness, as well as the true founding father of the Italian language, and we never thought that his verses could marry so perfectly with a modern message of positivity such as that of our recent campaign ’We will come back to embrace each other.’ This is why we decided to adapt some of his most famous quotes such as ´E quindi uscimmo a riveder le stelle´ to the images of our campaign, transforming the statue´s covering panels into a medium of hope and optimism.”

Verona, Zalando funds restoration of Dante monument in Piazza dei Signori

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