Statue of the "Primavera"

Corso Imperatrice, which is one of the most prestigious seaside promenades on the Riviera dei Fiori and one of the most famous in Europe, also because of its historical origins, is bordered on the side towards the sea by the "Passeggiata dell'Imperatrice" (Empress' Promenade), and in the middle of a carpet of flowers you can see what has become the symbol of Sanremo, that is the Statue of "Primavera", a young girl soaring amidst garlands of flowers, created by the sculptor Vincenzo Pasquali who created it in the early 1920s.

The same sculptor who should have executed several other important sculptural works in the city, including the statue of Saint Francis in front of the Capuchin church, the Monument to the Fallen (see above) in corso Mombello, and his two twins, the "Ondina", which, wandering in other places in the city, is now located in a flowerbed at the top of the gardens in corso Mombello and the "Goddess Flora" in the gardens of Villa Ormond.

The famous statue seems to have been created by  Vincenzo Pasquali by imitating the youthful and exuberant features of his very young daughter Italia, who died recently. However, she always denied having posed for her father, but some writings, recently found, confirm the truth.

Since then he has always remained in the same place, whatever the weather, the most admired and naturally photographed Monument in Sanremo.

Unfortunately it seems that there are people who have nothing better to do than to pick on the public heritage and in particular the "Primavera", with various acts of vandalism.

On 9 June 2017, vandals, who don't know whether they wanted to take home a trophy or were simply being hooligans, literally amputated the right foot of the statue.

Here is how the mayor Alberto Biancheri commented on the incident: «Last night they smashed the foot of the Primavera statue. I stared incredulously at the photo for a few minutes, wondering what could have been in your head to enjoy kicking a statue to smithereens. I couldn't come up with an answer, except to say that certain people, lacking in education, civic sense, and without the slightest respect for the beauty that surrounds us and that is so painstakingly maintained, should be forced to do long periods of community service in order to be fully re-educated, in addition to possible fines. In the meantime, and in the hope that someone may have seen the vandal responsible for the gesture, we have already started the procedures for restoration. The Primavera will soon return to its original beauty».
The municipality had to undertake a rather laborious and costly intervention to remedy this.

After this, although it still looks young, almost one hundred years after its birth, it was decided on 15 May 2019 to subject the statue to ordinary maintenance work as soon as possible.

But the vandalism did not cease, quite the contrary.
On 26 June 2019, the entire base of the statue was daubed with white paint.
The Municipality, which was informed of the facts by a report from some citizens and a local newspaper (Sanremonews), had to intervene again, adding this to the restoration already planned in May.

This logically slowed down the "restyling" work that the 'Matuzia' company of Sanremo had been contracted to do on the statue, but also for the routine maintenance of the buffer area, with the removal of the grass surface and the laying of non-woven fabric and the laying of round white Carrara gravel, as well as the edging.

The cost of the intervention was initially estimated at 3,900 euro, after the defacing, a higher sum was obviously allocated to clean the surface using specialist materials.

For the time being, the situation seems to have stabilised and the Statue is still resplendent in its beauty in the midst of the flower bed that separates the corso from the Passeggiata Imperatrice and its gardens.

(sources: online newspapers "Sanremonews.it", "RIVIERA24.it", texts by Andrea Gandolfo; images from the Web and private archives)