A Monument to the Power Hammer
The Giovanni Carraro monument, conceived by
Antonio Carraro is made up of three elements:
the bust of Giovanni Carraro, in bronze by
Augusto Murer (the only Italian sculptor at the
Hermitage Museum in St Petersberg), the
power hammer belonging to Giovanni Carraro
and a pond with running water, symbol of life
but also a fundamental element for the
cooling of metal worked by the blacksmith.
Lined up on a strip of marble there is the
bust, the water and the hammer. Engraved on
it is a famous quote form The Iliad by Homer:
“”Better is the blacksmith’s art than his
strength….” Almost a desire to raise the
perception of the blacksmith’s work,
considered mainly physical, to a creative and
intellectual expression.
With the invention of the power hammer, with
its rotating weights activated by a harnessed
horse moving around the power hammer itself,
it was possible to “mass” produce many steel
objects: agricultural equipment, harnesses,
gates, carts, blades. At the beginning of the
20s Giovanni Carraro, with the introduction of
the torque force in his workshop was able to
modify, his father, Giuseppe’s power hammer
to be operated by an electrical engine.
