Sassi di Zoe

Along the lanes of San Pietro di Barbozza, pebbles from the Piave stare back at you: sculpted figures and floral wall pieces by Angelo Favero, the local artist everyone calls Zoe. Odd, endearing and entirely outdoors, the sassi turn a Prosecco village into an open-air studio.

Why it matters

The vineyard hills of Valdobbiadene are a formally protected landscape, inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List for centuries of wine-growing, yet one of their most memorable sights was made by a single pair of hands. The Sassi di Zoe are stone sculptures carved and assembled from pebbles of the Piave, installed on walls, facades and street corners of San Pietro di Barbozza, a frazione of Valdobbiadene. The Consorzio that safeguards Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore DOCG and the town's official tourism catalogue document the sculptures as part of the area's heritage.

What to notice

The material comes first: every figure is built from river stones, chosen for shape and smoothed by the Piave, then worked with hammer and chisel into relief. Favero's two repertories are easy to tell apart. One is floral — mural compositions of blossoms and branches spreading across walls. The other is the "putinòt": small characters, often human in attitude, which the artist describes as "cittadini dell'Universo", citizens of the Universe. Several works cluster around the fountain in the piazza of San Pietro di Barbozza and along the square's edges. Figures also line via della Cima near the artist's workplace, a shack of sheet metal and cement that Favero calls the Alcazar. On via La Cordana, which skirts Villa dei Cedri, a work known as the "Gufo" depicts an owl. The sculptures are not signposted, reflecting their informal integration into village life.

Context and history

Angelo Favero was already an octogenarian when the Consorzio's wine-country publication of November 2019 found him at work with hammer and chisel on material gathered from the river that frames the whole valley. Locals quickly adopted both the artist and his output: his artistic nickname Zoe stuck so thoroughly that the works are universally known as the Sassi di Zoe, Zoe's stones. The Consorzio's publication describes his creations in the square of San Pietro di Barbozza, including floral panels and the putinòt figures he gives to people in the community. The municipal tourism catalogue documents the same sites — piazza, via Cima, the Alcazar and via La Cordana — and treats the sculptures as part of the town's heritage. Their date of birth is deliberately loose: the collection has grown stone by stone, work by work, and continues to behave less like a monument than like a habit.