World Art Utopia

U Chitarraru mural by Edoardo Ettorre, Rogliano, Calabria, Italy

A tall, narrow three-storey house photographed from the front, its whole upper facade painted with a seated man tuning a guitar. He has curly brown hair and stubble, and wears a white shirt, a dark brown waistcoat, a burgundy bow tie, olive trousers, and one dark and one brown shoe. He sits on a wooden chair with a light-brown guitar on his knee and looks up at one hand raised to the tuning pegs at the top of the neck. To the left, a painted red table holds open sheet music, a stack of books and a white quill in an inkwell; two real windows, the upper one closed with a white shutter, cut into the painted room, and a third window lower down carries the word “ASSICURA”. At the lower left of the mural the painted signature reads “Edoardo Ettorre × Gulìa Urbana”, above a white street plate reading “Piazza Pietro Buffone”. Below the mural the ground floor is plain white with a green door. In front of the house is a paved square with two no-parking signs and a red-and-white barrier, blue café umbrellas and a tree on the left, a yellow neighbouring building on the right and a man sitting on the steps beside it.
Artwork FileRogliano · Italy
SeenSep 2026

U
Chitarraru

Edoardo Ettorre · “U Chitarraru”, Gulìa Urbana, presented by 12 September 2026 · Piazza P. Buffone, Rogliano, Cosenza, Calabria

Photo as published on Street Art Utopia and World Art Utopia; photographer not named

  • #EdoardoEttorre
  • #UChitarraru
  • #VincenzoGallo
  • #GulìaUrbana
  • #SalvatoreDiana
  • #PiazzaBuffone
  • #Rogliano
  • #Calabria

On the main square of Rogliano, a man in a waistcoat and bow tie tunes his guitar beside sheet music and a quill. He is Vincenzo Gallo (1811–1865), the town’s dialect poet known as “U Chitarraru”. Edoardo Ettorre painted him in 2026 for the street art project Gulìa Urbana, continuing a 1991 mural by the local painter Salvatore Diana that had faded away.

5 things to know

  1. Named after the family tradeGallo was born in Rogliano on 28 April 1811. His father was a guitar maker, and the cellar of the family home was a workshop for building guitars. Vincenzo learned the trade as a boy, “donde il nomignolo ’U Chitarraru” (hence the nickname ’U Chitarraru), which stayed with him all his life. He died in Rogliano on 27 July 1865. ICSAIC
  2. Part two of a 1991 pictureIn 1991 Salvatore Diana painted U Chitarraru in his room, writing a love letter, with his guitar leaning below. Over 35 years that mural wore away. Ettorre picks up the story: “La lettera è ormai scritta. La chitarra non è più appoggiata: U Chitarraru la tiene tra le braccia e la accorda” (The letter is now written. The guitar is no longer leaning: U Chitarraru holds it in his arms and tunes it). La Voce del Savuto
  3. A continuation, not a copyLa Voce del Savuto writes that the new mural “non cancella quello di Diana e non pretende di prenderne il posto. Lo prosegue.” (does not erase Diana’s and does not try to take its place. It continues it.) CosenzaOk calls it a reinterpretation of Diana’s 1991 mural and a homage to him. La Voce del Savuto · CosenzaOk
  4. Poet, teacher and Garibaldi supporterGallo worked as a guard at the district prison, took part in Rogliano’s revolutionary committee, wrote an “Ode a Garibaldi”, and became the town’s primary school teacher in 1861. He put cantos of Dante’s Inferno into Rogliano dialect; Cesare Lombroso called them a classic. ICSAIC
  5. Paid for with regional fundsLa Voce del Savuto says the project was financed by the Calabria Region from POC 2014/2020 funds (Azione 6.8.3), under a public call for tourism and cultural promotion. La Voce del Savuto

Check-in guide

📍
On Piazza P. Buffone, which La Voce del Savuto calls the “centralissima” (very central) square and CosenzaOk “la piazza principale di Rogliano” (Rogliano’s main square) (La Voce del Savuto, CosenzaOk). OpenStreetMap names it Piazza Pietro Buffone (OpenStreetMap).
🧭
The Maps button points to the middle of the square as mapped on OpenStreetMap (39.1787, 16.3234), not to the wall itself. The painted house stands on the square; its house number is not published.
👀
The mural is new: the newest reports are from 12 and 30 September 2026. We found no dated photo taken after that.
🎨
Gulìa Urbana painted other walls in Rogliano in 2026, by Aches, Vesod, Marta Lapeña (in the Cuti district) and Order55 (CosenzaOk).
Open in MapsLocal report

Sightings

  1. 1991Diana

    Diana’s first version

  2. 202612 Sep

    La Voce: new mural

  3. 202630 Sep

    CosenzaOk: on the square

  4. 20266 Oct

    In SAU “In Their Own World”

Every stamp links to its source. All stamps are amber: they are reports, not dated photos. The 1991 stamp is Salvatore Diana’s earlier mural of the same subject, which the new work continues; it is described by La Voce del Savuto, not shown.

On the record

La Voce del Savuto12 September 2026

Rogliano, “U Chitarraru” torna a vivere nel cuore del paese: il nuovo murale di Edoardo Ettorre

“Nel vecchio murale U Chitarraru era raffigurato nella sua stanza mentre scriveva una lettera d’amore. Poco più in basso, appoggiata, compariva la sua chitarra.”

“In the old mural U Chitarraru was shown in his room writing a love letter. A little lower down, leaning, was his guitar.” The local paper adds that Gulìa Urbana thanked Ettorre for “la sensibilità, la cura e il cuore” (the sensitivity, care and heart) he put into the work.

Read

CosenzaOk30 September 2026

Gulìa Urbana, nuovi interventi artistici trasformano Rogliano

“Nella piazza principale di Rogliano, Edoardo Ettorre ha invece rivolto lo sguardo alla memoria artistica locale, rendendo omaggio a Salvatore Diana, artista roglianese, attraverso la reinterpretazione di un suo murale del 1991.”

“On Rogliano’s main square, Edoardo Ettorre turned to the town’s artistic memory, paying homage to Salvatore Diana, a Rogliano artist, by reinterpreting a mural he painted in 1991.” The round-up of the 2026 edition quotes Gulìa Urbana’s artistic director Giacomo Marinaro.

Read

ICSAIC, Dizionario Biografico della Calabria Contemporanea2021

Gallo, Vincenzo (’U Chitarraru)

“…in un’abitazione il cui scantinato era adibito a officina per la costruzione di chitarre, mestiere che egli stesso imparò ed esercitò da giovanissimo, donde il nomignolo ’U Chitarraru, con cui fu chiamato per tutta la vita.”

“…in a house whose cellar was used as a workshop for building guitars, a trade he learned and practised himself from a very young age, hence the nickname ’U Chitarraru, by which he was called all his life.” Entry by Leonardo Falbo.

Read

The facts

Artist
Edoardo Ettorre (La Voce del Savuto, CosenzaOk; Instagram) Checked
Title
“U Chitarraru”, the nickname of the man in the mural, as used in La Voce del Savuto’s headline. We found no title list from the artist or the project Reported
Subject
Vincenzo Gallo (Rogliano, 28 April 1811 – 27 July 1865), poet and teacher, known as ’U Chitarraru (ICSAIC, La Voce del Savuto) Checked
Project
Gulìa Urbana (La Voce del Savuto, CosenzaOk); artistic director Giacomo Marinaro (CosenzaOk) Checked
Date
Handed over to the town by 12 September 2026, the date of La Voce del Savuto’s report. The painting days are not published Reported
Place
Piazza P. Buffone, the main square of Rogliano, province of Cosenza (La Voce del Savuto, CosenzaOk). The house number is not published Checked
Earlier mural
Salvatore Diana, a painter from Rogliano, painted U Chitarraru writing a love letter on the square in 1991; it had faded over 35 years (La Voce del Savuto, CosenzaOk) Checked
Funding
Calabria Region, POC 2014/2020, Azione 6.8.3, call “Sostegno e promozione turistica e culturale”, D.D.G. n. 8026/2025 (La Voce del Savuto). One source Reported
Photo
Published on World Art Utopia on 24 September 2026 and on Street Art Utopia; the photographer is not named Unconfirmed
Status
New in September 2026; the newest report is CosenzaOk’s of 30 September 2026 Reported

Related

All sources (6)

This mural

The man in the mural

The place

Where we showed it

Artwork File · Last checked 6 October 2026 · Certainty labels follow How We Verify Art · All Artwork Files