Luciani Square Gardens

The Gardens of Matteo Luciani Square were created at the same time as the Municipal Villa and are surrounded by three road axes that give the green area a characteristic triangular shape.

In the center of the garden stands the bust of Matteo Luciani, created in 1937 by Pasquale Avallone. Matteo Luciani was the first mayor of Salerno after the Unification of Italy, and he had the Villa Comunale and the Teatro Verdi built as well as initiating an important process of urban renewal that fostered the rebirth of the city.

The artist’s work is also a part of the city’s history.

The artist seems to focus on the details of the face, succeeding in fully capturing its deepest and most intimate expressive humanity. Interesting is the bronze bas-relief accompanying the statue, in which the vivid dynamism of the figures is realized on the’intersection of horizontal and vertical lines as is proper in some of dell’Avallone’s works dated around this period.

The artist seems to focus on the details of the face, succeeding in fully capturing its deepest and most intimate humanity of expression.

Behind the theater and just outside the fence of the Villa Comunale are the small but lovely gardens of Piazza Umberto I characterized by a central oval-shaped flowerbed, lush vegetation and a few benches.