Monument to Caterina Campodonico, Marble tomb in Staglieno Cemetery, Italy
Monument to Caterina Campodonico is a life-size marble figure at the Staglieno Cemetery in Genoa, showing a street vendor in traditional dress holding strings of hazelnuts and ring-shaped pastries. The sculpture stands in the lower western portico of the cemetery, surrounded by other marble tombs from the same era.
The figure was created in 1881 by sculptor Lorenzo Orengo and commissioned by Caterina herself, who had spent years saving money from selling nuts at local markets. The poet G.B. Vigo wrote the text on the base in Genoese dialect.
The epitaph carved on the base is written in Genoese dialect, a language rarely spoken today, which makes it hard for most visitors to read without help. It speaks directly about a working-class woman who chose to tell her own story in her own words.
The tomb is inside the Staglieno Cemetery, one of the larger cemeteries in Europe, where it is easy to get lost without a map. A site plan is available near the entrance and helps locate the lower western portico.
Caterina chose to be shown holding the very goods she sold every day so that anyone passing by would know exactly who she was and how she had lived. The monument was designed from the start as a personal introduction rather than a religious or symbolic image.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 60,000 contributors worldwide.
