Cesare Lombroso, who was born in Verona on 6th November 1835, was a psychiatrist, an anthropologist, a criminologist and an Italian jurist: he is considered a pioneer and the “father” of modern criminology.
The bronze statue was made by the sculptor Leonardo Bistolfi, who worked mainly in Turin, and it was inaugurated on 25th Septemper 1921.
The figure of Lombroso sits on a stone throne that surrounds him. It is accompanied by a book and a skull, in order to substantiate his theory that a criminal is recognizable by particular physical and facial features. The statue is in quite a good state of preservation but it isn’t sufficiently valued because of its location, far from touristic itineraries.
Source: guidebook "Le statue di Verona", project supervised by Luca Leone, published in August 2015 with the support of the town council of Verona.
