The Statue of Giordano Bruno, created by Ettore Ferrari

Ettore Ferrari

Ettore Ferrari was an Italian sculptor.-Biography:Born in Rome to an artistic family , Ferrari was one of the members of the artistic rebirth in the secular state born after the Italian Unification...

, was erected at Campo de' Fiori

Campo de' Fiori

Campo de' Fiori is a rectangular square near Piazza Navona in Rome, Italy, on the border of rione Parione and rione Regola. Campo de' Fiori, translated literally from Italian, means "field of flowers"...

 in Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

, Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

, in 1889.

This statue of Giordano Bruno

Giordano Bruno

Giordano Bruno , born Filippo Bruno, was an Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, mathematician and astronomer. His cosmological theories went beyond the Copernican model in proposing that the Sun was essentially a star, and moreover, that the universe contained an infinite number of inhabited...

 was commissioned by the supporters of the unification of Italy. The sculptor, Ettore Ferrari, was the Grand master

Grand Master (order)

Grand Master is the typical title of the supreme head of various orders of knighthood, including various military orders, religious orders and civil orders such as the Ancient Order of Hibernians and the Orange Order...

 of the Grande Oriente d'Italia

Grande Oriente d'Italia

The Grand Orient of Italy is a masonic organization based at Palazzo Giustiniani, Rome, Italy. It was founded in 1805.Past grand masters included:*Giuseppe Garibaldi,*the sculptor Ettore Ferrari,*the mayor of Rome Ernesto Nathan and...

, the Masonic jurisdiction of Italy, who were strong supporters of the unification of Italy.

On April 20, 1884, Pope Leo XIII

Pope Leo XIII

Pope Leo XIII , born Vincenzo Gioacchino Raffaele Luigi Pecci to an Italian comital family, was the 256th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church, reigning from 1878 to 1903...

 published the encyclical Humanum Genus

Humanum Genus

Humanum Genus was a papal encyclical promulgated on April 20, 1884, by Pope Leo XIII. Coming in the ascent of the industrial age and Marxism, it posited that the late 19th Century was a dangerous era for Christians, and condemned Freemasonry as well as a number of beliefs and practices allegedly...

. As a response, the Freemasons

Freemasonry

Freemasonry is a fraternal organisation that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around six million, including approximately 150,000 under the jurisdictions of the Grand Lodge...

 decided to create a statue of the pantheist

Pantheism

Pantheism is the view that the Universe and God are identical. Pantheists thus do not believe in a personal, anthropomorphic or creator god. The word derives from the Greek meaning "all" and the Greek meaning "God". As such, Pantheism denotes the idea that "God" is best seen as a process of...

 Giordano Bruno. The statue was unveiled on June 9, 1889 at the site where Bruno was burnt at the stake for heresy on February 17, 1600, and Giovanni Bovio

Giovanni Bovio

Giovanni Bovio was an Italian philosopher and radical politician. He has been a member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies.He was involved in setting up the radical movement "Fascio della democrazia" in 1883....

 made a speech surrounded by about 100 Masonic flags. In October 1890, Pope Leo XIII warned Italy in his encyclical Ab Apostolici

Ab Apostolici

Ab Apostolici was a papal encyclical promulgated by Leo XIII on 15 October 1890.It dealt with Freemasonry in Italy, condemning the contemporary course of public affairs in Italy as the realization of the "Masonic programme"...

before the realization of Freemasonry and called for its dissolution, whose members he called anti-Christian and enemies.

Today, the place is the center of an annual commemoration by atheists and freethinker

Freethought

Freethought is a philosophical viewpoint that holds that opinions should be formed on the basis of science, logic, and reason, and should not be influenced by authority, tradition, or other dogmas...

s.

A statue of a stretched human figure standing on its head designed by Alexander Polzin depicting Bruno's death at the stake was placed in Potsdamer Platz

Potsdamer Platz

Potsdamer Platz is an important public square and traffic intersection in the centre of Berlin, Germany, lying about one kilometre south of the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag , and close to the southeast corner of the Tiergarten park...

 station in Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

, Germany on March 2, 2008.