*Fair warning - these next few "Travel Monday" posts will be very detailed...I'm working on reading about the cities we'll be visiting this summer!
MILAN
Late modern and contemporary
In 1918, the Great War ended with Italy among the winning powers, but the heavy toll of the conflict manifested itself in terms of food shortage, high unemployment and hyperinflation that quickly led to social unrest. Exploiting these favorable circumstances, Benito Mussolini organized his FascistBlackshirts, that rallied for the first time in Piazza San Sepolcro, a small square near Milan Cathedral. Subsequently, Mussolini led his March on Rome starting from Milan. During the Second World War Milan suffered severe damage from British and American bombings. When Italy quit the war in 1943, German forces occupied most of Northern Italy until 1945. As a result, antifascist resistance groups formed and started guerilla operations against Nazi and Italian Social Republic's troops. As the war came to an end, the American 1st Armored Division advanced on Milan as part of the Po Valley Campaign. But before they arrived, members of the Italian resistance movement took control of the city and executed Mussolini along with several members of his collaborationist government. On 29 April 1945, the corpses of Mussolini, his mistress Clara Petacci and other Fascist hierarcs were infamously hanged in Piazzale Loreto, where a year before fifteen antifascists had been executed.
In the 1980s, as several fashion firms based in the city became internationally successful (such as Armani, Versace and Dolce & Gabbana), Milan started to be recognized as one of the world's fashion capitals. The traditionally affordable and practical, yet stylish and chic attire produced by the city's stylists made it a serious global competitor, threatening Paris' century-long status as the world capital of haute couture. The city saw also a rise in international tourism, notably from America and Japan. This period of prosperity and the new international image of the city led many journalists to call the metropolis "Milano da bere", literally "Milan to drink".[40] However, in the 1990s, Milan was badly affected by Tangentopoli, a major political scandal centered on public works bribes, in which several local and national politicians and businessmen were tried for alleged corruption. The city was also affected by a severe financial crisis and a steady decline in textiles, automobile and steel production, that led to a deep reorganization of its economy.
After the war, the city was the site of a refugee camp for Jews fleeing from Austria. During the economic miracleof the 1950s and 1960s, a large wave of internal migration, especially peasants from rural areas of Southern Italy, moved to the city. During this period, Milan saw a quick reconstruction of most of its destroyed houses and factories, with the building of several innovative and modernist skyscrapers, such as the Torre Velasca and the Pirelli Tower. The economic boom was however overshadowed in the late 1960s and early 1970s during the so called Years of Lead, when Milan witnessed an unprecedented wave of steet violence, labour strikes and political terrorism. The apex of this period of turmoil occurred on 12 December 1969, when a bomb exploded at the National Agrarian Bank in Piazza Fontana, killing seventeen people and injuring eighty-eight.
In the early 21st century, Milan underwent a series of massive redevelopments, with the moving of its exhibition center to a much larger site in the satellite town of Rho,[41] and the construction of a new financial district in Porta Nuova. The 2008 announcement of the city hosting the Expo 2015[42]has brightened prospects for the city's future, with several new plans of regeneration and the planned construction of numerous avant-garde structures. Despite the decline in Milan's manufacturing production,[43] the city has found alternative and successful sources of revenue, including publishing, finance, banking, food processing, information technology, logistics, transport and tourism.[43] In addition, Milan's population seems to have stabilized in recent years, with signs of recovery as it grew by five percent since 2001.[44]
Architecture
See also: List of buildings in Milan and Villas and palaces in Milan
There are few remains of the ancient Roman colony that later became a capital of the Western Roman Empire. During the second half of the 4th century, Saint Ambrose, as bishop of Milan, had a strong influence on the layout of the city, redesigning the centre (although the cathedral and baptistery built at this time are now lost) and building the great basilicas at the city gates:Sant'Ambrogio, San Nazaro in Brolo, San Simpliciano and Sant'Eustorgio, which still stand, refurbished over the centuries, as some of the finest and most important churches in Milan. The largest and most important example of Gothic architecture in Italy, the Milan Cathedral, is the fourth largest cathedral in the world[50] after St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, the Cathedral of Seville and a new cathedral in the Ivory Coast.[50] Built between 1386 and 1577, it hosts the world's largest collection of marble statues with the widely visible golden Madonna statue on top of the spire, nicknamed by the people of Milan as Madunina (the little Madonna), that became one of the symbols of the city.
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In the second half of the fifteenth century, when the Sforza ruled the city, the old Visconti fortress was enlarged and embellished to became the Castello Sforzesco: the seat of an elegant Renaissance court surrounded by a walled hunting park stocked with game captured around theSeprio and Lake Como. Notable architects involved in the project included the Florentine Filarete, who was commissioned to build the high central entrance tower, and the military specialist Bartolomeo Gadio.[51] The political alliance between Francesco Sforza and the Florence of Cosimo de' Medici bore architectural fruit, as Milanese building came under the influence of Brunelleschianmodels of Renaissance architecture. The first notable buildings to show this Tuscan influence were a palazzo built to house the Medici Bank (of which only the main entrance survives) and the centrally planned Portinari Chapel, attached to Sant’Eustorgio and built for the first manager of the bank's Milan branch. Filarete, while in Milan, was responsible for the great public hospital known as theOspedale Maggiore, and also for an influential Treatise on Architecture, which included a plan for a star-shaped ideal city called Sforzinda in honour of Francesco Sforza and passionately argued for the centrally planned form.
Leonardo da Vinci, who was in Milan from around 1482 until the fall of the city to the French in 1499, was commissioned in 1487 to design a tiburio, or crossing tower for the cathedral, although he was not chosen to build it.[52][53] However, the enthusiasm he shared with Filarete for the centrally-planned building gave rise in this period to numerous architectural drawings [pictured], which were influential in the work of Donato Bramante and others. Bramante's work in the city, which includedSanta Maria presso San Satiro (a reconstruction of a small 9th-century church), the beautiful luminous tribune of Santa Maria delle Grazie and three cloisters for Sant'Ambrogio, drew also on his studies of the Early Christian architecture of Milan such as the Basilica of San Lorenzo.[54]
The Counter-Reformation was also the period of Spanish domination and was marked by two powerful figures: Saint Charles Borromeo and his cousin, Cardinal Federico Borromeo. Not only did they impose themselves as moral guides to the people of Milan, but they also gave a great impulse to culture, with the creation of the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, in a building designed by Francesco Maria Ricchino, and the nearby Pinacoteca Ambrosiana. Many notable churches and Baroque mansions were built in the city during this period by the architects, Pellegrino Tibaldi, Galeazzo Alessi and Ricchino himself.[55]
Empress Maria Theresa of Austria was responsible for the significant renovations carried out in Milan during the 18th century. She instigated profound social and civil reforms, as well as the construction of many of the buildings that still today constitute the pride of the city, like the Teatro alla Scala, inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and today one of the world's most famous opera houses. The annexedMuseo Teatrale alla Scala contains a collection of paintings, drafts, statues, costumes, and other documents regarding opera and La Scala's history. La Scala also hosts the Ballet School of the Teatro alla Scala. The Austrian sovereign also promoted culture in Milan through projects such as converting the ancient Jesuit College, in the district of Brera, into a scientific and cultural centre with a Library, an astronomic observatory and the botanical gardens, in which the Art Gallery and theAcademy of Fine Arts are today placed side by side. Milan was also widely affected by theNeoclassical movement in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, transforming its architectural style.
Napoleon Bonaparte's rule of the city in the early 19th century produced several fine Neoclassical edifices and palaces. Many of these are located in the Corso Venezia district,[56] including the Villa Reale, or often called the Villa del Belgiojoso (not related to the Palazzo Begiojoso). It is situated on Via Palestro and near to the Giardini Pubblici and it was constructed by Leopoldo Pollak in 1790.[57]It housed the Bonaparte family, mainly Josephine Bonaparte, but also several others, such as CountJoseph Radetzky von Radetz and Eugène de Beauharnais.[57] It is often regarded as one of the best types of Neoclassical architecture in Milan and Lombardy and is surrounded by an English landscape garden. Today, it hosts the Galleria d'Arte Contemporanea (English: Gallery of Contemporary Art) and it is lavishly decorated inside with ornate classical columns, vast halls, marble statues and crystal chandeliers.[57] The Palazzo Belgiojoso was also a grand Napoleonic residence and one of the finest examples of Milanese Neoclassical architecture.
Another major example of Neoclassical architecture in the city includes the Palazzo Tarsis, built by Luigi Clerichetti for the Count Paolo Tarsis in 1834, which has an ornate façade.[56] There are also several other important Neoclassical monuments in the city include the Arco della Pace or the Arch of Peace,[56] sometimes called the Arco Sempione(Sempione Arch) and is situated in Piazza Sempione right at the end of the Parco Sempione. It is often compared to a miniature version of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. The work on the arch began in 1806 under Napoleon I and it was designed by Luigi Cagnola. Just like with the Arc de Triomphe, Napoleon's 1815 defeat at the Battle of Waterloo, halted the construction of the monumental arch, but Emperor Franz Josef (Francis Joseph) I of Austria ordered it to be completed, also as an honour to the Vienna Congress and peace treaty of 1815. It was completed by Francesco Peverelli on 10 September 1838.[57] Another noted Neoclassical building in the city is the Palazzo del Governo, constructed in 1817 by Piero Gilardoni.[57]
In the second half of the 19th century, Milan assumed the status of main industrial city of thepeninsula and drew inspiration from other European capitals, center of those technological innovations that constituted the symbol of the second industrial revolution and, consequently, of the great social change that had been put in motion. The great Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, a covered passage that connects Piazza del Duomo, Milan to the square opposite of La Scala, was built byGiuseppe Mengoni between 1865 and 1877 to celebrate Vittorio Emanuele II, the first king of united Italy. The passage is covered over by an arching glass and cast iron roof, a popular design for 19th-century arcades, such as the Burlington Arcade, London, which was the prototype for larger glazed shopping arcades, beginning with the Saint-Hubert Gallery in Brussels and the Passazh in St Petersburg. Another late 19th century eclectic monument in the city is the Cimitero Monumentale (literally, "Monumental Cemetery or graveyard"), which is found in the Stazione district of the city and was built in a Neo-Romanesque style by several architects from 1863 to 1866.
The tumultuous period of the 20th century also brought several innovations in architecture. Art Nouveau, also known as Liberty in Italy, started to develop in the city during the early part of the century;[58] alongside other major Italian cities, most notably Palermo and Turin, the style became highly popular at the start of the century, and it produced several notable buildings in the city.[58] Art Nouveau developed its own, individual style known as "Liberty Milanese" (Milanese Art Nouveau), which, in many aspects, was similar to the style of the Vienna Secession.[59] Possibly one of the most notable Art Nouveau edfices in Milan is the Palazzo Castiglioni in Corso Venezia, which was built by architect Giuseppe Sommaruga between 1901 and 1904.[58] Other noted Art Nouveau-style buildings in the city include the Hotel Corso[58] or the Berri-Meregalli house, the latter which was built in a traditional Milanese Art Nouveau style combined with elements of neo-Romanesque and Gothic revial architecture, and is regarded as one of the last types of Art Nouveau architecture in the city.[60] In 1906, with the Universal Exposition, which was held in Milan, the city was able to exhibit its Art Nouveau works, and it was considered the official style of the exposition.[61] Nonetheless, as the century progressed, other styles started to be explored, including neo-Romanesque, eclectic and Gothic revival architecture, and Art Nouveau started falling out of fashion by c. 1913, when the official season was closed by Sommaragua.[61] A new, more eclectic, form of architecture can be seen in buildings such as the Castello Cova, built the 1910s in a distinctly neo-medieval style, evoking the architectural trends of the past.[62] A later form of Art Nouveau, as well as Art Deco, started to arise, especially as one can see in the city's Central Station (Stazione Centrale), which blended such styles withFascist architecture. The post–World War II period of reconstruction saw rapid economic growth that was accompanied by an increase in the population and the founding of new districts, but also for the strong drive for architectural renewal, has produced some of the milestones in the city's architectural history including Gio Ponti's Pirelli Tower (1956–60), the Velasca Tower (1956–58), the creation of new residential districts and, in recent years, the construction of the new exhibition centre in Rho and the urban renewal of once industrial areas, that have been transformed into modern residential districts and services.
Culture
Tourism
Main article: Tourism in Milan
Milan is one of the European Union's most important tourist destinations, also being the 7th best city in Europe in terms of touristic reputation, attractions and branding;[18] with 1.902 million arrivals in 2007 and 1.914 million in 2008, it places itself 42nd and 52nd respectively, most visited city in the world.[82] According to a particular source, 56% of international visitors to Milan are from Europe, while 44% of the city's tourists are Italian, and 56% are from abroad.[63] The most important European Union markets are the United Kingdom (16%), Germany (9%) and France (6%).[63]According to the same study, most of the visitors who come from the USA to the city go on business matters, while Chinese and Japanese tourists mainly take up the leisure segment.[63] The average stay for a tourist in the city is of 3.43 nights, while foreigners stay for longer periods of time, 77% of which stay for a 2–5 night average. Of the 75% of visitors staying in hotels, 4-star ones are the most popular (47%), while 5-stars, or less than 3-stars represent 11% and 15% of the charts respectively.[63]
The city contains several cultural institutions, museums and galleries, some of which are highly important at an international level,[83] such as the city's Duomo and Piazza, the Convent of Sta. Maria delle Grazie withLeonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper, the San Siro Stadium, the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, the Castello Sforzesco, the Pinacoteca di Brera and the Via Monte Napoleone. Most tourists visit sights such as Milan Cathedral, the Castello Sforzesco and the Teatro alla Scala, however, other main sights such as the Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio, the Navigli and the Brera Academy and district are less visited and prove to be less popular.[63]
The Pinacoteca di Brera is one of Milan's most important art galleries. It contains one of the foremost collections of Italian paintings, an outgrowth of the cultural program of the Brera Academy, which shares the site in the Brera Academy. It contains masterpieces such as the Brera Madonna by Piero della Francesca. The Castello Sforzesco hosts numerous art collections and exhibitions. The best known of the current civic museums is the Pinacoteca del Castello Sforzesco, with an art collection including Michelangelo's last sculpture, the Rondanini Pietà, Andrea Mantegna's Trivulzio Madonna and Leonardo da Vinci's Codex Trivulzianus manuscript. The Castello complex also includes The Museum of Ancient Art, The Furniture Museum, The Museum of Musical Instruments and the Applied Arts Collection, The Egyptian and Prehistoric sections of the Archaeological Museum and the Achille Bertarelli Print Collection.
Milan's figurative art flourished in the Middle-Ages, and with the Visconti family being major patrons of the arts, the city became an important centre of Gothic art and architecture (Milan Cathedral being the city's most formidable work of Gothic architecture).[84] Also, rule of the Sforza family, between the 14th and 15th century, was another period in which art and architecture flourished. Milan became the seat of an elegant Renaissance court,[85] while great works, such as the Ospedale Maggiore, the public hospital designed byFilarete were built, and artists of the calibre of Leonardo da Vinci came to work in Milan, leaving works of inestimable value, such as the fresco of the Last Supper and the Codex Atlanticus.
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Bramante also came to Milan to work on the construction of some of the most beautiful churches in the city; in Santa Maria delle Grazie the beautiful luminous tribune is by Bramante, as is the church of Santa Maria presso San Satiro.
The city was affected by the Baroque in the 17th and 18th centuries, and hosted numerous formidable artists, architects and painters of that period, such as Caravaggioand Francesco Hayez, which several important works are hosted in Brera Academy.[84]
Milan in the 20th century was the epicenter of the Futurist artistic movement. Filippo Marinetti, the founder of Italian Futurism wrote in his 1909 "Futurist Manifesto" (in Italian, Manifesto Futuristico), that Milan was "grande...tradizionale e futurista" ("grand...traditional and futuristic", in English). Umberto Boccioni was also an important Futurism artist who worked in the city.[84] Today, Milan remains a major international hub of modern and contemporary art, with numerous modern exhibitions.[84]
The Museo Poldi Pezzoli is another of the city's most important and prestigious museums. The museum was originated in the 19th century as the private collection of Gian Giacomo Poldi Pezzoli and his mother, Rosa Trivulzio, of the family of the condottiero Gian Giacomo Trivulzio, and has a particularly broad collection of Northern Italian and (for Italy) Netherlandish/Flemish artists. The Museum of the Risorgimento (Museo del Risorgimento) is a museum in Milan on the history of Italian unification from 1796 (Napoleon's first Italian campaign) and 1870 (Rome's annexation into the Kingdom of Italy) and on Milan's part in it (particularly the Five Days of Milan). It is housed in the 18th century Palazzo Moriggia. Its collections include Baldassare Verazzi's Episode from the Five Days and Francesco Hayez's 1840 Portrait of Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria. La Triennale di Milano is a design museum and events venue located inside the Palace of Art building, part of Parco Sempione, the park grounds adjacent to Castello Sforzesco. It hosts exhibitions and events highlighting contemporary Italian design, urban planning, architecture, music, and media arts, emphasizing the relationship between art and industry.
Fashion and design
Milan is regarded as one of the international capitals of industrial and modern design, and one of the world's most influential cities in such fields.[86] The city is particularly well known for its high-quality ancient and modern furniture and industrial goods. Milan hosts the FieraMilano, Europe's biggest, and one of the world's most prestigious furniture and design fairs.[86] Milan also hosts major design and architecture-related events and venues, such as the "Fuori Salone" and the Salone del Mobile. In the 1950s and 60s as well as early 70's, being the main industrial centre of Italy and one of mainland Europe's most progressive and dynamic cities, Milan became, along with Turin, Italy's capital of post-war design and architecture. Skyscrapers, such as the Pirelli Tower and the Torre Velasca were constructed, and artists such as Bruno Munari, Lucio Fontana, Enrico Castellani andPiero Manzoni, to name a few, either lived or worked in the city.[87]
Milan is also regarded as one of the fashion capitals of the world, along with New York City, Paris, and London. The Global Language Monitor declared that in 2009 Milan was the top economic and media global capital of fashion,[88] despite the fact it fell down to sixth place in 2010,[89] and went up to fourth place in 2011.[90] Most of the major Italian fashion brands, such as Valentino,Gucci, Versace, Prada, Armani and Dolce & Gabbana, are currently headquartered in the city. Numerous international fashion labels also operate shops in Milan, including an Abercrombie & Fitch flagship store, which has become a main consumer attraction. Furthermore, the city hosts the Milan Fashion Week twice a year, just like other international centres such as Paris, London, Tokyo, and New York. Milan's main upscale fashion district is the quadrilatero della moda (literally, "fashion quadrilateral"), where the city's most prestigious shopping streets (Via Monte Napoleone, Via della Spiga, Via Sant'Andrea, Via Manzoni and Corso Venezia) are held. The Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, the Piazza del Duomo, Via Dante and Corso Buenos Aires are other important shopping streets and squares. Mario Prada, founder of Prada was born here, helping to cultivate its position as a world fashion capital.
Language and literature
Main article: Milanese literature
In the late 18th century, and throughout the 19th, Milan was an important centre for intellectual discussion and literary creativity. The Enlightenment found here a fertile ground. Cesare, Marquis of Beccaria, with his famousDei delitti e delle pene, and Count Pietro Verri, with the periodical Il Caffè were able to exert a considerable influence over the new middle-class culture, thanks also to an open-minded Austrian administration. In the first years of the 19th century, the ideals of the Romantic movement made their impact on the cultural life of the city and its major writers debated the primacy of Classical versus Romantic poetry. Here, too, Giuseppe Parini, andUgo Foscolo published their most important works, and were admired by younger poets as masters of ethics, as well as of literary craftsmanship. Foscolo's poem Dei sepolcri was inspired by a Napoleonic law that—against the will of many of its inhabitants—was being extended to the city. In the third decade of the 19th century,Alessandro Manzoni wrote his novel I Promessi Sposi, considered the manifesto of Italian Romanticism, which found in Milan its centre, and Carlo Porta wrote his poems in Western Lombard Language. The periodical Il Conciliatore published articles by Silvio Pellico, Giovanni Berchet, Ludovico di Breme, who were both Romantic in poetry and patriotic in politics. After the Unification of Italy in 1861, Milan lost its political importance; nevertheless it retained a sort of central position in cultural debates. New ideas and movements from other countries of Europe were accepted and discussed: thus Realism and Naturalism gave birth to an Italian movement, Verismo. The greatest verista novelist, Giovanni Verga, was born in Sicily but wrote his most important books in Milan.
In addition to Italian, approximately a third of the population of western Lombardy[citation needed] can speak the Western Lombard language[citation needed], also known as Insubric[citation needed]. In Milan, some people (mostly elder ones) of the city (natives but also, less often, immigrants) can speak the traditional Milanese language —that is to say the urban variety of Western Lombard, which is not to be confused with the Milanese-influenced regional variety of the Italian language.
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