The statue of Carlo Emanuele III
In the middle of the promenade, surrounded by the bustle of passers-by, stands the statue of Carlo Emanuele III. The work was created at the community’s own expense, in memory of the king of Sardinia who in 1738 had allowed the colonisation of the island of San Pietro and hence the birth of Carloforte. The statue was created by the Genoese artist Bernardo Mantero, and was inaugurated on 16 July 1786 and welcomed by the townspeople during three days of celebrations. Two years later, the duke of San Pietro, Don Alberto Genovese, had the kneeling figures of two slaves added to that of Carlo Emmanuel III, in memory of the king’s intervention in the liberation of the people from Tabarka in northern Tunisia. Another five years went by, and in 1793, during the French occupation of the island, the statue had to be hidden under the sand, with little time for caution: the king’s right forearm, which remained uncovered, broke off. The amputation of the marble limb was not remedied when the monument was put back in place, and the disfigurement of what the people of Carloforte affectionately call Pittaneddu is still on display today, in memory of the events of that time.
