Monument of Mario Cermenati, Marble monument in Lecco, Italy

The Monument of Mario Cermenati is a marble sculpture in the square of the same name in Lecco. The geologist stands upright, his gaze turned toward the lake, his right hand resting on three volumes representing Leonardo, geology and the history of science. The statue sits on a rocky pedestal bearing an epigraph by the poet Giovanni Bertacchi.

The bronze original by Sicilian sculptor Mario Rutelli, showing Cermenati standing and gesturing, was requisitioned and melted down by the fascist regime during the Second World War for the war industry. In 1945 Francesco Modena was commissioned to carve a marble replacement, placed on the original rocky pedestal. It was inaugurated on 25 September 1927, the same day as the nearby Stoppani monument on the lakefront.

The square was long known as Piazza del Grano, then Piazza Cesare Battisti, before being renamed for Cermenati. The rocky base carries an epigraph by the Chiavenna poet Giovanni Bertacchi. Since the early 21st-century renovation, a shallow water basin and four fountains at the cardinal points surround the wrought-iron enclosure.

The monument stands in Piazza Cermenati, the square once called Piazza del Grano and later Cesare Battisti. Since the early 21st-century renovation, its rocky base sits inside a shallow water basin with four fountains at the cardinal points, so approach from the paved side to read the epigraph.

The bronze original by Mario Rutelli showed Cermenati standing and gesturing animatedly; the fascist regime requisitioned and melted it during the Second World War for the war industry. The marble statue by Francesco Modena, commissioned in 1945, was placed on the original rocky pedestal, where an epigraph by the Chiavenna poet Giovanni Bertacchi is engraved.