Domenico Chiodo,

a bit of an architect, a bit of a general.

Certainly a symbol of the birth of the modern city. Domenico Chiodo is a fundamental piece for the birth of modern La Spezia which from a fishing village became an industrial city attracting thousands of people from all over Italy. To him, whom today a square, a street and a high school in the city were named after, was entrusted with the project for the construction of the large Maritime Military Arsenal wanted by Cavour thanks to the particular armor that the Gulf of La Spezia provided for a base so well located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea.

The promoters and clients of the monument called Santo Varni, the most important and most popular sculptor at that time in Liguria, a renowned artist known throughout Italy. The monument, after a long gestation, was placed in the square that bears the name of the General, at the junction between the Arsenal and the city, and was inaugurated on 10 July 1878.

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