Parco John Lennon in Castelnuovo Rangone

Parco John Lennon is a public park on Via Enrico Fermi in Castelnuovo Rangone, a town just south of Modena. The council named it after Lennon and opened it on 8 December 1985, five years after his death, making it Italy's first public space dedicated to him. A life-size statue was added in 1998.

Why a Modena suburb named a park after Lennon in 1985

In the mid-1980s Castelnuovo Rangone was growing quickly. Families were moving out from Modena, and the town's plan set aside land for public green space. The first of the new parks, a small plot along Via Enrico Fermi, was ready in the second half of 1985.

The town council chose to name it after John Lennon, calling him "poet, musician, pacifist" in the dedication. Not everyone agreed. Critics dismissed Lennon as a drug user, and the argument filled local newspapers for weeks before reaching the national press. Supporters won by pointing to his work for peace, and the park opened on 8 December 1985, five years to the day after he was shot in New York. The Terre di Castelli tourism union calls it the first public space in Italy named after Lennon. A local historian goes further and says it was the first in Europe.

Lennon Day every 8 December

The opening started a tradition. Each 8 December the town holds a John Lennon Day with music and community events in and around the park. In 2018 it included a public history talk on what Lennon's memory has meant to the town.

What is in the park

A life-size figure of Lennon was placed in the park in 1998. Its sculptor and material are not named in the town's listings.

At the entrance, a cut-out figure of Lennon faces a zebra crossing, a nod to the Abbey Road cover. The current silhouette went up on 19 December 2020, 40 years after his death.

Inside, a stone work is modeled on the memorial at Strawberry Fields in Central Park. Several murals about Lennon's life and music are painted around the grounds.

The park stays busy in summer. An open-air cinema has run there since 2016, and the "Note al Parco Lennon" series of book talks with live music takes place in June and July. Next door is a second green space named after The Catcher in the Rye.

Another Italian tribute, a 2019 peace pyramid, stands in Senigallia on the Adriatic coast.