The monument to Anita Garibaldi on the Janiculum Hill

The idea of erecting a monument on the Janiculum Hill dedicated to Anita Garibaldi dates back to 1905, with the intention of inaugurating it in Rome in 1907, the centenary of the birth of the Hero of Two Worlds.

Two competitions were held for its creation, but none of the proposed designs found favour with the public. In 1929, the project was taken up again by Ezio Garibaldi, Giuseppe's grandson, and entrusted to the artist Mario Rutelli with the intention of inaugurating the work on the 50th anniversary of Garibaldi's death, on 2 June 1932. Rutelli set to work imagining the heroine riding a galloping steed with a pistol in her hand, like a new Amazon.

The bronze equestrian statue is 4.5 metres tall, weighs 40 quintals and depicts Anita during the events of the “Farrapos War” (1840) in defence of the “Republica Juiliana”, founded after the revolt of the province of Rio Grande do Sul against the Brazilian Empire. With her reins loose, the heroine escapes from the imperial soldiers who had surrounded the country house in the small village of Mostazas, where twelve days earlier, on 16 September 1840, she had given birth to her firstborn son, Menotti Domingo. With the baby secured to her chest by a handkerchief given to her by Garibaldi, she holds on to the mane of her steed with her left hand and brandishes her pistol high in her right hand.

The travertine base, measuring 18 metres in circumference and weighing 80 quintals, holds her mortal remains.

The four bronze high reliefs decorating the sides depict episodes from the heroine's adventurous life: Anita leading Garibaldi's troops during the battle of Curitibanos; Anita observing the combatants; Anita searching for Garibaldi on the battlefield among the fallen; her husband carrying her dying body in his arms.

The monument in honour of Anita Garibaldi stands a few steps away from that of the Hero of Two Worlds, as if to seal, with its proximity, a love impervious to time and death.