The Malavoglia
fountain
is situated in the city centre, in the large and modern Piazza
Verga. It consist of a group of sculptures, given from the
Sicilian Region to the town of Catania to honour the writer
Giovanni Verga. The Catanese sculptor Carmelo Mendola took part
in a competition announced publicly in 1956 for the construction
of a great monument dedicated to Giovanni Verga. The project
made by Mendola persuaded the committee and it won the
competition.The carrying out of the group of sculptures went on
for 19 years and it was committed with full ceremony the evening
of the 25th of October 1975, by the chief of the
Sicilian government Angelo Bonfiglio to the mayor Domenico
Magri.
The sculpture
shows the second dramatic shipwreck of the “Provvidenza”
described in the 10th chapter of the novel “I
Malavoglia” by Verga.In the ship, that is being shipwrecked at
sea, there were young Alessi, his brother’ Ntoni and their
grand-father, the old Padron Ntoni. The group of sculptures, at
the centre of a circular basin ( 13 metres of diameter ) weights
seven tons; it is three metres in width, nine in length and five
in breadth.
