It's 19 feet tall and 62 feet long and it's been there since 1966 and some people have never noticed it. Others have marveled at its abstract quality. If you've ever walked past the Connecticut Post newspaper offices, along Lafayette Boulevard at State Street in Bridgeport, you may have noticed an unusual mural on the upper faade of the company's parking garage.

Here's the story behind the story it has to tell:

The bas-relief made of concrete depicts a newspaper in abstract and was sculpted by Costantino Nivola, who also did work for Yale University. Nivola described his work as a personal interpretation of the printed word. Built in 20 panels each weighing a ton, the sculpture depicts education, family, patriotism, art, music, fashion

The concrete bas-relief mural depicting artist Costantino Nivola's interpretation of the "printed word."
and advertising.

"The news," he told the Post in 1966, "is interpreted and simplified to become an art form."

The sculpture was commissioned by Ray Flicker, president of the Post Publishing Co. after a suggestion by Frank George, vice president at design firm Fletcher-Thompson. It was built at Nivola's home on Long Island, trucked to Bridgeport and installed with the help of large cranes. In Nivola's words, "the elements in the composition of the mural are highlighted in such a way that the spectator may grasp first the general effect and then, in a second look, the individual details of the information. It conveys the idea of a newspaper without being corny or obvious."

So the next time you're heading into the RBS building, the

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federal courthouse or Housatonic Community College, all on Lafayette Boulevard, slow down for a moment and take in a one-of-a-kind piece of art.