Nel 1930 l’uomo d’affari italiano Philip Garbo fu incaricato dal Comune di Cleveland di seguire la costruzione di un monumento culturale in stile rinascimentale che fungesse da  simbolo dell’immenso contributo dato dalla cultura italiana alla democrazia americana. Con la dedica di un busto del poeta Virgilio, il Giardino Culturale Italiano a Rockefeller Park fu  inaugurato il 12 ottobre 1930 davanti ad una folla di 3.000 italiani ed italo americani raccoltisi  per festeggiare il Giorno di Colombo e la ricorrenza dei 2000 anni della nascita di Virgilio. Dal 2007 è in corso un importante progetto di restauro per 1,5 milioni di dollari, per completare il progetto originale che prevedeva un Pantheon con al centro una statua di Galileo e 150 targhe in onore di italiani distintisi durante i secoli negli ambiti delle Arti, delle Lettere e delle Scienze. 

The Italian Cultural Garden, Cleveland’s public monument to Italy in Rockefeller Park, will be embarking on a large restoration as part of its ongoing $1.5 million restoration.

Thirteen hundred square feet of large pavement designs that have deteriorated since their 1940 installation will be replaced. 

Circling the large Renaissance fountain, these seven pavement designs include six 9-foot circles and one large rectangle with wide ribbons connecting the circles. Each will be bordered with two colors of pavers with large cement wedges pointing to seven granite medallions, each etched with images honoring seven giants of Italian culture. 

Space remains for two more donor bronze name plaques on two of the circles. If you would like to honor your family name on one of the granite medallions ($3,800), please call the Italian Cultural Garden at: 216.916.7780.

We wish to thank those from the Italian community who have generously helped make the $63,000 pavement design restoration a reality. Our gratitude to Alicia Marotta Linihan and Brian Linihan Family, the LaMantia Family, the NOIA Foundation, and the Frank Fantozzi family.

The next piece of the restoration will be the Pantheon structure. Through our research obtained from old newspaper microfilm, it was discovered that a Pantheon structure was to be built in 1930 but was never completed. Architectural drawings of the structure depict an open oculus at the top of the dome like the Pantheon in Rome with a glass dome like the Atrium in the Cleveland Museum of Art. 

This open structure will be surrounded with columns much like the Jefferson Memorial in Washington D.C. Also like the Jefferson Memorial, Philip Garbo, one of the creators of the garden, stipulated that there be “large marble wall plaques inscribed with 100 names of famous Italian women and men.”

The Pantheon will be surrounded by 60 3-foot-tall granite markers depicting Italian cultural greats in the fields of science, engineering, medicine, chemistry, physics, invention, literature, architecture, sculpting, playwrighting, poetry, painting, and Noble Prize winners. 

This beautiful structure will be a public, outdoor museum in homage to Italy’s brilliant contributions to Western civilization and will cost $800,000. 

The Italian Cultural Garden, the only cultural Renaissance garden in the U.S., continues to honor its mission from its dedication in 1930 as “a symbol of the contribution of Italian culture to American democracy.”

• Galileo Galilei, 1564... Galileo Galilei, 1564...
• Andrea Palladio, 1508... Andrea Palladio, 1508...
• Donatello, 1386 -... Donatello, 1386 -...
• Leonardo da Vinci,... Leonardo da Vinci,...
• Michelangelo, 1475 -... Michelangelo, 1475 -...
• Ovidio, 42 BC... Ovidio, 42 BC...
• Gian Lorenzo Bernini,... Gian Lorenzo Bernini,...
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