RAI PALACE

PALAZZO DELLA RAI

Viale Giuseppe Mazzini 14

1963/65 Francesco Berarducci (1924) and Alessandro Fioroni (1926/80)

In the courtyard in front of the entrance bronze sculpture “The dying horse” 1966 by Francesco Messina (1900/95)

“Although not always understood by the more modernist Italian critics, Messina led an aesthetic journey with inner security and self-consistency. Cocteau, in an exemplar essay, tracked down even in his more outlined works the Mediterranean substance of his sculpture, characterized not so much by figurative similarity, as by that particular vibration with which he solved the modeling, without ever sculpting deformed figures or yield to the risk of caricature” (Rosanna Ruscio - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani Treccani)

MONUMENT TO St. CATHERINE OF SIENA

MONUMENTO A S. CATERINA DA SIENA

Largo Giovanni XXIII

1961 statue of Francesco Messina (1900/95)

The structure of the monument was designed by Mario Loreti

Four marble bas-reliefs on the front with "Stories of St. Catherine" and the four more in the back with coats of arms of Azione Cattolica (Catholic Action), the Civic Committee, some municipalities in Italy and Monte dei Paschi di Siena (the bank of Siena), with their inscriptions

The dedication of Pius XII around the monument reads: Catharina senensis patriae decus religionisque tutamen, Catherine of Siena dignity of the homeland and defense of Religion

St. Catherine of Siena (1347/80) was canonized in 1461 and is the patron saint of Italy and Europe. She is buried in Rome in the church of S. Maria sopra Minerva, but the left thumb and head are preserved in the Basilica of St. Dominic in Siena and the left foot in the Church of Sts. John and Paul in Venice