The monument to the dead is located in a little garden, near the church of San Giorgio Piacentino.
The monument to the dead
On top of a basement, composed by many piled up rocks, there is a bronze sculpture of a standing soldier; his movement is showing his action throwing a big stone at the enemy.
A rifle is placed to his feet. Among the stones there are a Latin cross and a bronze crown made of bay and oak leaves with a sword in the middle.
In the past on the side of the monument two cannons were set, which were recently removed.
The author
The sculpture was created by Ugo Rancati (1895-1976) a sculptor from Piacenza. The monument was unveiled on the 19th September 1924.
On the basement are placed two bronze books; the left one contains a list of all the first World war dead soldiers; on this book there’s an epigraph taken from the poem of Giosuè Carducci, Bicocca di San Giacomo (1891).
The book on the right side was added later, remembering the dead of the II World War.
The place
San Giorgio Piacentino is a little town 15 kilometers far from Piacenza. Do not miss the Rocca (Stronghold) from the sixteenth century, wanted by Alessandro Anguissola and later assigned to Jacopo Barozzi, known as Vignola.
Nowadays the building is used for private celebrations and once in a while it’s open to touristic visits.
