Description of the attraction
The Chano Mausoleum is located in Livorno, on the hills on the very outskirts of the city, in the town of Monteburrone (near the Montenero district). This is all that remains of the once imposing monument, built for the burial of the leader of the fascist party Costanzo Chano and his family.
The construction of the mausoleum began shortly after Chano's death in 1939. According to the initial project, it was supposed to consist of a huge base, crowned with a marble statue 12 meters high and a giant lighthouse in the form of a lictor fascia (an attribute of power in the era of ancient Rome) more than 50 meters high. Gaetano Rapisardi was appointed the architect of the grandiose project, and Arturo Dazzi was the sculptor.
Construction work proceeded quickly, and already in the early 1940s, despite the outbreak of war, a lighthouse was completed, the light of which was supposed to remind of the immortal spirit of Chano. However, the end of the fascist dictatorship prevented the completion of construction. At that time, the mausoleum was a massive tower about 17 meters high, and the lighthouse was blown up by German saboteurs. The Chano statue, only partially completed, was never installed on the mausoleum. Today it is located on the islet of Santo Stefano in the Maddalena archipelago off the coast of Sardinia.
What remains of the mausoleum today is concentrated around a spacious vaulted hall with classical columns, which can be accessed through a simple entrance with an architrave. At the entrance, fragments of a staircase and a shaft for an elevator are visible, which was supposed to lift visitors to the top of the monument.
In recent years, various ideas for redeveloping this place have been discussed many times, but proposals to turn the mausoleum into a hotel or include it in the cemetery zone of the Montenero quarter have not been approved. Today, those who want to admire the views of Livorno, the islands of the Tuscan archipelago (Capraia, Gorgona and Elba) and Corsica come here.
