Dante Park
Next to the Church, on Dante Street 

Dante park officially gets its name on June 26th, 1963. Situated right next to the Madonna della Difesa Church, it was always named that way by the Italians that lived in the neighborhood, but it only got its official name in 1963. The park is designed to remember the great Italian poet Dante Alighiery (1265-1321). Durante Aligheri, also known as Dante, was a popular Italian poet of the 14th Century. He wrote The Divine Comedy, the first piece that was written in the popular Italian language. This had become a masterpiece of European litterature and of epic poetry.  

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"The Death of Dante" 

To commemorate his 600th death anniversary, a bust of Dante was sculpted and named "The Death of Dante". The artist, Carlo Balboni, an Italian Immigrant,  came to Montreal in the early 1900s. He limited his work to a few busts.  To create his piece, he inspired himself from a ancient piece from the Museum of Naples. He sculped half his body, holding in his hands a copy of The Divine Comedy. 

Its statue is only installed in the park in 1964. Since 1922, it was exposed at the crossroads of Sherbrooke, Amherst and Cherrier Streets (Ville de Montréal, 1995). 

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Inside the park, the bust is in the far back.

The bust from up close.

Plaque next to the bust, which explains Balboni's work.

You can see Pizzeria Napoletana from the corner of the park, right across Dante street.