Pope Francis crosses Mimmo Paladino's Porta d'Europa in Lampedusa

On July 4, 2026, Pope Francis crossed Mimmo Paladino's Porta d'Europa during his visit to Lampedusa, rekindling public attention to the monument dedicated to migrants who died at sea. The sculpture, inaugurated on June 28, 2008, was commissioned by the humanitarian association Amani and Arnoldo Mosca Mondadori. It was designed by Paladino, who donated the work, and placed on the southernmost point of the island, Cavallo Bianco, facing Zuwara, Libya. The monument is nearly five meters high and three meters wide, made of refractory ceramic and galvanized iron, built between Faenza and Paduli. It was conceived after the Portopalo shipwreck of Christmas 1996. The work also references the 2008 Italian-Libyan agreement signed by Muammar Gaddafi and Silvio Berlusconi. During the inauguration, poet Alda Merini contributed a poem. In 2016, artist Arabella Pio temporarily walled the gate with concrete blocks inscribed with 'Migrante non identificato qui riposa' to protest migration policies. The Porta d'Europa is compared to other works such as Christoph Büchel's Barca Nostra and Forensic Oceanography's projects by Lorenzo Pezzani and Charles Heller.