GIUSEPPE CAVALLARO (1833-1888)
The urban development of Barcelona received a decisive boost after the unification of Italy thanks to the figure of the architect from Barcelona Giuseppe Cavallaro (1833-1888)From 1862 he was municipal architect, and in this role he changed the face of the city by designing Via Operai, the Town Hall, the Fair, the Livestock Market, the Municipal Cemetery, and the Neviere di Colle del Re.
Il Palazzo Comunale, “spacious and beautiful for its architecture and solidity”, historians of the time note, was built next to the stream Longano, with its main entrance on Via Garibaldi, represented the architect's first public project. It was demolished and rebuilt in the 1950s and modified with extensions and facade renovations in the 1980s.
Starting from 1862 he prepared the Development Plan for the new city, whose driving force was the project of a straight road: the Workers Street. The growth of the city was organised along this road with an orthogonal grid structure marking the new face of Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto with beautiful streets, fountains and spacious squares.
On Operai Street it opens Piazza Libertà, whose octagonal layout finds very important references in international urban planning culture, such as the 1859 Master Plan by engineer Cerdà for Barcelona, Spain. Other octagonal squares: the square “Four Songs” of Palermo with its octagonal layout of great importance in Sicilian urban planning culture and the square of the “Four Fountains” or Quattro Canti of Messina which can be traced back to the spatiality of the octagonal square.
Piazza Libertà is a crucial testament to the architect Cavallaro's great talent and, above all, to the significant role the square played in the city's history. It was a meeting place and a place of exchange, where the market was held; over time, it also became a reference point, having been subsequently reproduced for other squares: the intersection of Via Verdi and Via Carducci, and the intersection of Via Papa Giovanni XXIII and Via San Vito.
The initial project of the Municipal Cemetery, inaugurated in 1877, always considered to be of great organic beauty, now incorporated into the expanded cemetery, concerns the entrance area with lateral ramps that lead visitors to the transition between the sloping area and the horizontal level above, where the ground tombs and chapels are located. The entrance is marked by two truncated pyramid-shaped buildings that serve as offices; immediately afterward, we find an open space for receiving and blessing the remains. The final section of Cavallaro's project is an additional, smaller, horizontal level raised approximately two meters, marked at the beginning by the modern altar and at the end by two chapels from the 1890s. This area is home to his monumental tomb, created by the sculptor Emanuele Schifilliti in 1892.
NELLO CASSATA (1913-1997)
Born in Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto April 6, 1913. He graduated in law from the University of Messina, where his professor of criminal law and procedure was former President of the Republic Giovanni Leone. A deep sense of belonging to his hometown led him to write several books: Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto in the Risorgimento and Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto from 1860 to today, the Labyrinth, The Smell of Must and My Prehistory. A feverish search for his Sicilian roots and origins allowed him to write the collection "Aranciu amaruHe was part of the municipal administration, where he held the position of Councilor for Public Education. His hometown dedicated a monument to him, inaugurated on April 26, 1998 in Piazza San Sebastiano.
BARTOLO CATTAFI (1922-1979)
After graduating in law, he lived between Milan, where he worked as an advertising man, and Barcellona Pozzo di GottoCattafi's poetry used the metaphor of solitude to outline the bitter assessment of a generation that lived its youth during the twenty-year Fascist period, only to witness the horrors of the Second World War. His name appears alongside Quasimodo, Montale, and Ungaretti. The most respected literary magazines of the time wrote about his poetry. His poems have been translated into many languages. In 2019, Cattafi's entire poetic oeuvre was collected in the volume: Tutte le poesie, edited by Diego Bertelli. In his memory, his hometown established the prestigious Cattafi National Prize. The local bar was also named after him. Palacultura.
The municipal administration of the time erected a bronze bust of him in the square San Sebastiano. work by the sculptor Filippo Minolfi.
PHILIP ROSSITTO (1807-1879)
A man of letters, patriot, and municipal historian, he was born on October 10, 1807, in Pozzo di Gotto. His father, Giuseppe, was a Carbona conspirator, and his mother, Emanuela Cassata, belonged to wealthy, noble families. After completing all the education he could in his hometown, partly under the guidance of two priest uncles, the young Rossitto moved to Messina to earn a law degree, although it seems he earned it later in Catania. Marrying Laura Valveri, a native of Pozzo di Gotto, he continued to live in Messina, distinguished by his vast culture.
In 1848, he found himself at the center of the anti-Bourbon revolt, having been elected secretary of the Insurrectional Committee of Barcelona by the people. For this reason, he was persecuted as a difficult subject, narrowly escaping trial and forced to take refuge in Castroreale. In 1860, having returned to the city in the meantime, he returned to work and experienced the entire Garibaldian affair firsthand, also as a member of the new Insurrectional Committee.
After the defeat of the Bourbons, the tireless Filippo Rossitto was finally able to devote himself more calmly to his studies and research on Barcelona, which had earned him the esteem and friendship of several illustrious Sicilian scholars. He was named an honorary member of the Palermo National History Assembly, a member of the ancient Academy of Weary Pilgrims of Castroreale, and many others.
His fundamental work, The city of Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto described and illustrated with historical documents, was conceived over a long period of time, with extensive archival research. The work was published posthumously in 1911 (long after Rossitto's death on August 28, 1879) at the expense of the Municipality, thanks also to the coordination work of his nephew, Professor Filippo Bucalo. At his suggestion, as a city councilor, the first theater, originally called the "Teatro Comunale," was named after Placido. Mandanici.
PLACID MANDANICI (1799-1852)
The composer Placido Mandanici was born in Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto July 3, 1799. He studied at the Palermo Conservatory, and began his career as a double bass player in the theater of Reggio Calabria.
He then moved to Naples, where under the guidance of Pietro Raimondi he furthered his musical studies, until he was appointed director of ballet music at the San Carlo Theatre. At La Scala in Milan he presented his most important works, including Porta Ticinese Good-Timer, first staged on June 16, 1841. He composed the music for the Song of Victory for the five days of Milan in 1848, and with the return of the Austrians he was forced to take refuge in Genoa, where he died, following illness, on June 6, 1852, and where he is buried, in the city's monumental cemetery. He was the author of several melodramas, dances, sacred music, and instrumental pieces, including the Capriccio concertante for string quartet, now entered into the repertoire of various musical groups, and the Symphony in C for large orchestra dedicated to Pietro Raimondi. Of the Requiem mass, performed in modern premiere in Barcellona PG in the Cathedral of S. Maria Assunta on 19 December 1999, directed by Giuseppe Ratti, the only recording of music was made mandanicino.
It was named after him Municipal theater of the hometown, built in 1845 and demolished in 1971 after the fire that partially hit it in 1967. The theatre was rebuilt, in another location, between 1980 and 2012. On Placido Mandanici the musicologist Gioacchino Grasso wrote the fundamental monograph published by ila-palma in 1991, including the musician's personal and artistic story and the complete catalogue of his works.
ALESSANDRO MANGANARO (1917-1994)
Greek teacher at the “Luigi Valli” Classical High School in Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto, graduated in Palermo with a thesis on the Sicilian architect Angelo Italia, published in a volume in 1940.
He actively participated in cultural life, not only in the city, sharing his vast humanistic knowledge, always providing valuable advice and various contributions, presenting books, exhibitions, and speaking at conferences on various topics. He actively collaborated with Michele Stilo's Teatro Sperimentale, translating Plautus' comedy "For three pennies” staged in 1951, and revived in 2004 by the “S. Cattafi” theatre association.
He worked on modern Greek poetry, translating poems by Sikelianós, Elitis, Seferis, Ritsos, and Engonópulos, and illustrating them in the Gazzettino di Venezia in 1963. For the Mondadori publisher, he translated the novel by the modern Greek writer Stratis Myrivilis, "Sergeant Costula's War Notebooks".
In 1958, he wrote the letter, signed by all the other teachers, sent to the Superintendency of Catania, urging the restoration of the 18th-century Basilian Church, adjacent to the Luigi Valli Classical High School, where he taught. He was president of the Lions Club in 1986 and the head of the high school library, where he knew every book.
He made a fundamental contribution to the intellectual and cultural ferment that affected the Barcellona area in the years immediately following the Second World War and which led, between the 50s and 70s, to the expression of significant cultural vitality in theatre, art, and poetry.
NINO LEOTTI (1919-1993)
Nino Leotti was born on June 13, 1919 in Barcellona Pozzo di GottoSon of Giulia Battaglioli, an operatic soprano, and Vincenzo, a tenor and operetta composer, he was an Italian painter belonging to the Corrente Group, which expressed itself among the artists of the Fronte Nuovo delle Arti. His friendship with Renato Guttuso and the writer Beniamino Joppolo was crucial to his entry into the Corrente Group, an artistic movement born from the ashes of the magazine Vita Giovanile. The themes he addressed were primarily political, and the pictorial style was the expressionist one embodied by Carlo Carrà, Giacomo Manzù, Arturo Tosi, Raffaele De Grada, and Francesco Messina. Nino Leotti moved first to Milan and then to Rome, where he frequented the protagonists of neorealist painting: Renato Guttuso, Giuseppe Mazzullo, Stefano D'Arrigo, and Cesare Zavattini.
He graduated at the age of 19 from the Emilio Ainis Institute in Messina. During the Second World War, he was drafted as a lieutenant in the 4th Infantry Regiment. He was wounded on the Greek-Albanian front in a "heroic" military action, receiving a medal of valor and a telegram signed by Benito Mussolini in 1943. In 1947, he graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Palermo. After the war, Leotti returned to his hometown in 1949, where he organized his first solo exhibition, which attracted considerable critical attention, especially given his young age. Numerous exhibitions followed in Sicily and Calabria; during the 1951 Calabrese Biennale, he met artist friends Renato Guttuso, Beppe Guzzi, Giuseppe Mazzullo, Giovanni Omiccioli, and Carlo Walcher.
From 1951 to 1959, he moved to Rome, once again leaving Sicily. In 1953, he qualified as a teacher of drawing and art history, allowing him to teach in Roman schools. In April 1957, Leotti, aided by entrepreneur Cosimo Donadei, who recognized the artist's talent, organized a solo exhibition at the Roman gallery La Cassapanca. The paintings all depicted Sicilian landscapes: Barcelona, Milazzo, Patti, Cefalù, and Bafia. The works were highly acclaimed by the public and critics, so much so that the exhibition was also featured in several national newspapers.
In 1959, he returned permanently to Sicily, taking a position as a teacher of Drawing and Art History at the Luigi Valli High School, where he remained until 1978. He organized the reception for Salvatore Quasimodo in the city of Castroreale on June 4, 1965, on the occasion of the poetry prize in memory of Vann'Antò. The jury also included Pino Ballotta and Leotti himself. This period marked the beginning of his works inspired by the seascapes of his homeland after his experience in Rome.
He died on February 7, 1993 in his hometown. In 1995 the city of Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto he dedicated a monument to him with his bronze portrait made by his favorite pupil Salvatore De Pasquale
NINO PINO BALOTTA (1909-1987)
After initially studying medicine, he switched to veterinary medicine, graduating in 1930. He studied political science at the University of Perugia, where he frequented anti-fascist circles, working as a courier between Italy and France. During his travels abroad, he met the scientist Einstein, whose theories he shared and defended. His political activism led to his being tried and imprisoned several times. In 1938, he published the booklet "Sports Fanfare and Its Effects," which was later confiscated. Founder and first secretary of the Casa del Popolo of Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto, in 1945 he held the position of provincial secretary of the Italian Anti-Fascist Centre and the following year he became deputy mayor of his city.
In 1947 he was appointed honorary president of the Popular Democratic Front of Messina and its province. Imprisoned in 1948 for the popular uprisings of Barcellona Pozzo di GottoWhile in prison, he was elected to Parliament. He served on numerous parliamentary committees and on the Italian-Polish and Italian-Albanian national associations. He was a tenured assistant and lecturer, a professor of general animal husbandry, and the director of the Institute of the same name at the University of Messina. A journalist, a member of scientific and literary academies, the Italian Writers' Union, the SIAE, and the National Order of Journalists, from 1959 to 1967 he was national vice president of the Association of Dialect Poets and Writers. He founded and edited the magazine "Zootechnics and Life".
Winner of numerous awards, most notably the one received in 1952 from the French Veterinary Academy. In 1980, with a holographic will, he donated his body to science, naming the University of Messina as his universal heir, and transferred all his assets and rights to it. He is the author of numerous publications relating to his political, scientific, and literary activities. Among the speeches he gave to the Chamber of Deputies and published are: "For the farm workers of Lentini"(1948),"Protect and increase national livestock farming"(1948),"For livestock farming and agricultural technology"(1949),"For the misfortune of Cesarò"(1953),"Veterinary services, animal health remediation, and bio-food remediation” (1959). The works “Fish on the table"(1966),"Eugenics and progress"(1967),"Albert Einstein, ten years after his death” (1969) and the countless articles contained in the magazine “Zootechnics and Life".
We must not forget the poetry collections, among which we must include "Swarms of scattered words"(1940),"Swings"(1951),"Mminuzzagghi"(1956),"Prosthetic moles” (1966) and the collection of Sicilian ballads “Rowing rowing sailor” (1970). He also composed a one-act play for the theatre entitled “The drum” (1976) and literary criticism essays such as “Nino Martoglio and his work","Antonio Saitta's inspirations, his world, and his poetry” (1962) together with Pugliatti and Prestifilippo, “Three profiles: S. Di Giacomo, N. Martoglio, L. Pirandello"(1963),"The Gagarin Epic and Other Poems"(1963),"Domenico Tempio between Voltaire, Rousseau and Giovanni Meli"(1968).
IRIS ISGRO' (1923-2008)
At the age of three he arrives at Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto and attended evening drawing school under the guidance of the master Salvatore Crinò. At the age of twenty, he was deported to Nuremberg, Germany. Released on April 15, 1945, he returned to Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto, where he worked as a painter, restorer and decorator, without ever losing sight of his great love: painting. In the early 1950s his first solo exhibition entitled Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto (1954), the restoration of the ceiling of the hall of Sfameni Palace and the internal restoration of the upper floor of the Todaro-Pirandello Palace in Pozzo di Gotto.
In 1963, thanks to Father Carmelo Rossignolo, prior of the Santuario del Carmine, he oversaw the interior restoration of the sanctuary of the same name. At the end of the year, he went to work as a poster artist in Orlando, Florida. After a year and a half of stints, he returned to Sicily where he resumed his usual work. In the years to come, he participated in local and regional group exhibitions, winning numerous awards: the Silver Cup for 1966 at the Termini Imprese Extemporaneous Painting Exhibition; and a Diploma from the "Città di Brivio" Painting Competition (Milan).
In the same year it becomes “Associate Academic” of the Tiberina Academy in Rome. In October 1974, he oversaw the restoration of the Church of Sant'Angelo Martire of the Carmelite Fathers in Licata (Agrigento), and for the same church he also created a canvas depicting a particular moment in the life of Saint Spiritione: the apparition of his daughter Irene. In 1980, he won First Prize as painter of the year for the city of Milazzo.
He continued to produce canvases depicting processions, ancient crafts, games of the past, and squares with fountains that no longer exist. In 1995, he presented more than fifty canvases to the city in an exhibition promoted by the Municipal Administration entitled: Exhibition of Canvases for a Book. In December 1996, the canvases became a book: Traditions and Customs of Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto in the memories of Iris Isgrò which is published and presented by the Municipal Administration of the period.
In 1999 the Academy of Arts and Culture of Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto he gives him a plaque with the following motivation: “In his painting the history of the city"And for this reason he is unanimously defined as: a painter from Barceló. A year later he presents a new volume that aims to be the continuation of the first publication in which the written part is enriched this time by a large number of watercolor sketches."Squares, streets, alleys, activities of Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto”. In December 2002, during his last exhibition – dedicated to the Barcellona director Michele Stilo – he presented his latest book: “Dream-journey to the afterlife".
In 2004, at the age of eighty-one, he was awarded the "Pigna d'Argento" International Sicilian Prize for the Figurative Arts in Palermo. In June 2005, he was awarded the Mediterranean Oscar for the Figurative Arts. On November 23, 2008, he died in his beloved city.
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