Data sheet
Name: Monument for Giuseppe Levi
Location: field 2, no. 121
Author: Egidio Boninsegna (sculptor)
Construction date: 1910
Giuseppe Levi, born in Venice in 1830, was an important banker and philanthropist. After supporting the Republic of Venice in 1848 he had to take refuge in Egypt where he became director of the Bank of Egypt in Alexandria. He returned to Italy in 1890 and resided in Milan, where in 1904, “strongly impressed by the very pitiful conditions of the homeless and to comply with a sentiment of my soul to do in life a charitable public work”, he decided to give a house in via Cicco Simonetta 15 to Milan Municipality as a shelter for the poor homeless without distinction of religion and created the Opera Pia Comm. Giuseppe Levi for free night shelters in Milan . At his death he left donations to the Opera Pia, to the Pane Quotidiano in Milan, to the Pio Istituto dei Rachitici, to the Fraterna Misericordia of Venice, to the Israelite Community for kindergartens and for the poor Israelites.
The sculptor Egidio Boninsegna (1829-1929) created a classic Carrara marble monument with a funeral procession with Generosity extending its arms towards the homeless and children and an Italian flag that recalls the good works of Levi.
