Gabriele Rossetti’s prominence in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was tied more to his political significance than to the actual readership of his works. Exiled in London, where he died in 1854, Rossetti had fled to escape a death sentence imposed by Ferdinand of Bourbon after the uprisings of 1821. His legacy became closely associated with his studies on Dante, his politically charged interpretation of The Divine Comedy, and, most notably, his staunch anticlericalism. In London, he had converted to Evangelical Christianity and authored several works critical of the Roman Catholic Church.
In liberal Italy, where Catholicism was no longer the state religion and where Catholics were even urged by the Pope to abstain from political life, Rossetti perfectly embodied the spirit of the time. His interpretation of Dante allowed for the poet’s work to be liberated from its religious dimension, recasting Dante as a forerunner of both Italian unity and the secular state.
Rossetti was also a key figure in the Carbonari movement in an era when Italy’s leading literary figures—such as Giosuè Carducci and Giovanni Pascoli—were all Freemasons. He was regarded as an intellectual and ideological reference point, to the extent that literary collections and anthologies were dedicated to him.
In Vasto, a local Masonic lodge bore his name, and it was through this group that the first fundraising efforts for his monument began. In 1897, a formal committee was established to oversee its construction.
In 1903, the municipal council allocated an initial sum of 5,000 lire. The following year, on the 50th anniversary of Rossetti’s death, a national fundraising campaign was launched, with even the King of Italy contributing. However, the funds collected were insufficient, and the project was abandoned.
The initiative was revived in 1915 when the city administration commissioned Filippo Cifariello, a sculptor from Molfetta known for his Verist style in the Neapolitan school. His design was well received, even earning praise from philosopher Benedetto Croce. The proposal was approved and given an initial payment, but progress was halted by the outbreak of World War I.
In 1919, newly elected mayor Gelsomino Zaccagnini re-established a permanent committee, assuming its presidency. With the support of subsequent mayors, Florindo Ritucci Chinni and Pietro Suriani, the project moved forward, securing additional public and private funding to cover the significant costs.
In 1924, Mayor Suriani wrote an open letter to Italian emigrants in America, appealing for financial support. Contributions soon arrived from the Circolo Filodrammatico Vasto in New York and from prominent Vasto-born industrialists in Argentina, Carlo Della Penna and Luigi Ruzzi.
By the end of that year, the monument’s bronze elements were cast at the Laganà foundry on Corso Vittorio Emanuele in Naples. In March 1925, the statue of Rossetti, the eagle, and the four medallions representing his children arrived in Vasto. A few months later, the stone pedestal—crafted from Gioia del Colle limestone and adorned with bas-reliefs by artisan Angelo Pasquale Gravinese—was also transported to the site.
Finally, on September 12, 1926, the statue of Gabriele Rossetti was inaugurated.
Today, it is so familiar to the people of Vasto that they rarely notice the many historical inconsistencies it presents.
The figure depicted in the statue is not an accurate representation of Rossetti. Dressed in late 19th-century attire and bearing little resemblance to the portraits that have survived, this fictionalized version of Rossetti has, nevertheless, shaped the public’s perception of him for nearly a century.
This is hardly surprising. Just a few years after the monument’s unveiling, Rossetti’s legacy was effectively erased from mainstream Italian culture. In 1929, the Fascist regime signed the Lateran Pacts, restoring Catholicism as the state religion. Due to his anticlerical stance, Rossetti was systematically removed from Italian school anthologies and all but forgotten.
Even today, if you ask any resident of Vasto the name of the figure in the statue, they will instantly recognize Rossetti. But if you ask them to name one of his works, few—if any—will be able to answer.
