Piazza San Giovanni

Piazza San Giovanni in Trieste, crowded around the Monument to Giuseppe Verdi in its first version in Carrara marble. Created by the sculptor Alessandro Laforêt and unveiled on 27 January 1906 — five years after the composer's death — the statue portrayed Verdi seated in a meditative pose on a high pedestal. This marble version was later destroyed amid the tensions surrounding the Risorgimento symbolism of the inscription «VERDI» and was recast in bronze only in 1926: the photograph, still showing the marble, therefore dates between 1906 and the First World War. In the background, the arcaded palaces close off the square at the end of the Canal Grande.