Monument to Pier Paolo D’Attorre

Next to Porta Adriana, the monumental entrance to the historic centre, since 2000 stands the monument dedicated to Pier Paolo D’Attorre (1951-1997). A respected historian, the unforgettable mayor of Ravenna between 1993 and 1997: it is to him that we owe the inscription of the city on the Unesco World Heritage List, in cooperation with the Superintendence for Environmental and Architectural Heritage and the Curia of Ravenna. It is a mosaic sculpture depicting a bench on which a folded overcoat and a book seem to be momentarily abandoned. The cover of the book features a flowering bush, taken from the decoration of the Basilica of Sant’Apollinare in Classe, executed with bright green, red, white and blue tesserae. The bench conveys a sense of nostalgic anticipation and makes eternal the custom and affection that ran between the city and its former mayor. The design of the work is due to the artist Matthias Biehler, a sculptor born in Santiago de Chile, and the mosaic execution is due to the students of the Ravenna Mosaic School, supervised by mosaicist Luciana Notturni.