The figure of Dante Alighieri had gradually assumed the role of mystical Founder Father of the Italian Nation as a unifier of the language and ideal guide for the most important Italian writers, intellectuals and historians. The monument created by Enrico Pazzi, a Romagnolo sculptor, had a complex gestation. The City Council, after a first hypothesis that would have seen the statue placed in the Old Square of Santa Maria Novella (current piazza dell'Unità Italiana), decided to place it in the center of the square of Santa Croce, in direct relationship with the Basilica, Pantheon of Italian glories. The sculpture was inaugurated on May 14, 1865 on the occasion of the sixth centenary of the birth of the poet and coinciding with the first year of Florence Capital (1865-1871). After the Florentine flood of 1966, the statue of Dante was moved on the side, at the corner with Via San Giuseppe, to allow the game of calcio storico in the city. The sculpture in white Carrara marble depicts Dante Alighieri standing, wrapped in a large draped cloak and his head crowned with laurel over the traditional cap, face frowning, his eyes dark and intent to hold a tome with his right hand of the Divine Comedy. With his left hand he holds the cloak and girdles it to the opposite side, while at the feet, on the left side, there is an eagle with half-closed wings.
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