Building Stones of Milan and Lombardy: Volume 1: Buildings of Milan

523 Pages·2023·18.481 MB·English

by  Roberto Bugini, Luisa Folli

Building Stones of Milan and Lombardy
Milan has played an important role in the Italian country since the Roman period. This
importance is reflected also by the diffusion of stone architecture: a persisting trait of Milan
architecture was the use of different stones in the same building. Milan lies in the middle
of the alluvial plain of the Po, far from the stone quarries; some waterways were dug out in
order to supply the building stones from the surrounding territories.
The study of stone as a building material was significant at the end of 19th century, but
then it was largely neglected by both architects and geologists. So it is significant to suggest
a study about the stones employed to build in Milan (Volume 1) in relationship with a
petrographic study about the features of the stones quarried in the whole Lombard territory
(Volume 2).
The present volume contains a record of Milanese edifices marking the different historical
periods. Each edifice is described in a “card” containing: the building history, the architect,
the kind of stone employed and subdivided according to the different parts of the building and
the shape of stone elements. A particular investigation is addressed to the stones used during
the 20th century; a great part of them were never used before in Milan (or in Lombardy).
Roberto Bugini was born in Milan, Italy, in 1952. He graduated in Scienze Geologiche
(geology), University of Milan, in 1976. Since 1983 he has been a researcher of CNR-
ICVBC Istituto Conservazione Beni Culturali. He has been a lecturer in stone materials at
the Scuola di Specializzazione in Archeologia – Università Cattolica di Milano, since 2009.
His fields of interest are stones and mortars used in historic architecture with particular
application to the territory of Lombardy (Italy).
Luisa Folli was born in Lodi in 1956. She graduated in Scienze Naturali (natural sciences),
University of Milan, in 1990. Since 1991 Luisa has worked in the field of stone conservation
and has been a teacher (Mineralogy and Petrography) at Scuola di Restauro ENAIP –
Percorso quinquennale per Restauratori Beni Culturali (Botticino-Brescia) since 1995. Field
of interest: scientific analyses on nature and decay of historic building materials. References:
about 150 articles on books, journals and proceedings.

Building Stones of Milan
and Lombardy
Volume 1: Buildings of Milan
Roberto Bugini and Luisa Folli
Designed cover image: Roberto Bugini and Luisa Folli
First published 2023
by CRC Press/Balkema
Schipholweg 107C, 2316 XC Leiden, The Netherlands
e-mail: [email protected]
www.routledge.com – www.taylorandfrancis.com
CRC Press/Balkema is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2023 Roberto Bugini and Luisa Folli
The right of Roberto Bugini and Luisa Folli to be identifed as authors of this work has
been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents
Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any
form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publishers.
Although all care is taken to ensure integrity and the quality of this publication and the
information herein, no responsibility is assumed by the publishers nor the author for any
damage to the property or persons as a result of operation or use of this publication and/
or the information contained herein.
ISBN: 978-0-367-34563-1 (Set hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-39118-2 (Set pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-42064-6 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-42061-5 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-36102-2 (ebk)
DOI: 10.1201/9781003361022
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Contents
Preface to the first volume vii
1 Stone architecture in Milan 1
Historical town (Spanish walls, 17th century) 13
2 From piazza Duomo to piazza Fontana 15
3 From piazza della Scala to piazza San Babila 29
4 From Ca’ Granda to piazza Missori 57
5 From Carrobio to Cordusio and piazza Affari 81
6 From via Broletto to corso Garibaldi and Brera 111
7 From via Manzoni to corso Venezia 143
8 From Porta Vittoria to Porta Romana 187
9 From corso Italia to Porta Ticinese 215
10 Sant’Ambrogio and surroundings 231
11 From via Dante to piazza Castello and corso Sempione 261
Modern town (outside of the Spanish walls) 295
12 North-west sector 297
13 North-east sector 333
vi Contents
14 East sector 381
15 South sector 417
16 West sector 451
Index 489
Preface to the first volume
The eminent architect Giorgio Vasari (1511–74), author of “The Lives of the Artists”, the
most influential of all histories of art, wrote in the Preface to the whole work: “I will begin
with the architecture . . . and I will expound the varieties of stone, the methods of construc-
tion” [trans. G.C. De Vere, London, 1912–14]. Vasari was conscious of the importance of
stone as building material, and this quotation encouraged us to be aware of these materials
from a scientific point of view, so this text is the first complete research on stones employed
in Milan.
The use of stone as building material concerns geology, architecture and engineering;
yet this argument was ignored by geologists (eager to know the petrographic nature and the
geological setting of each stone, but uncurious to the use in architecture) or by architects and
engineers (eager to know the construction history, the style and the technical aspects of each
building, but uncurious to the materials employed). It is worth it to note the great impact of a
research-based discussion about the stone used in architecture, pointing out different issues:
quarrying, dressing, surface finishing, different use according to different parts of building,
diversified use during the centuries and decay phenomena linked to each lithotype.
This text focuses attention on Milan, the metropolis of Lombardy which lies in the alluvial
plan of the Po, fenced northbound by hills and mountains (Prealps and Alps). Milan played a
leading role in the Italian country since the Roman period: the capital of the Western Roman
Empire in the 4th century; the capital of the Duchy in the 14th–17th centuries and the capital
of the Regno Lombardo-Veneto since 1815. Moreover, the town always held a paramount
importance in industrial plants and commercial activity. The city’s wealth has created a
strong urban expansion and a continuous building renewal also in the urban centre, so the
present city aspect is mainly related to the 20th century.
This wealth is also reflected by the diffusion of stone despite the plain surrounding the
city: first as structural element (column, pier, lintel, arch, masonry) and then as non-struc-
tural finish (cladding); moreover, a persistent trait of Milan architecture was the use of dif-
ferent stones in the same building.
HOW THE VOLUME IS ARRANGED
This volume describes a series of buildings involving different aspects of Milanese architec-
ture. An account about the supply and use of stones during different artistic periods precedes
the building descriptions (Chapter 1).
The choice of the buildings embraces all the architecture of Milan; the ancient ones, built
before the Italian Unification (1861), are described in their entirety. Since it is not possible to
viii Preface to the first volume
examine all the edifices built from the second half of the 19th century until today, we chose
those listed in some selected books on Milan’s contemporary architecture, including new
churches built after the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965). We also described several
buildings constructed over the past 150 years lacking in stone material, considering their
role in the history of architecture, in order that the trend of use of stone over the centuries is
better pointed out.
The volume contains single “cards”: each “card” is dedicated to one building. This kind
of organization makes it easier to find the meaningful information of a particular building.
A geographical criterion was chosen to list the buildings of Milan and their stones. Milan
had a concentric expansion and the inner part (within the urban walls called Mura Spagnole –
Spanish Walls, 16th century) broadly coincides with the historical town, the outer part (out-
side the urban walls) with the modern town.
The historical town is subdivided into ten zones (Chapters 2–11) around piazza del Duomo
and, in each zone, churches, monasteries, noble palaces, public buildings, apartment build-
ings, etc. are described. The modern town was subdivided into five sectors (Chapters 12–16),
and several apartment or public buildings, churches, etc. are described. The buildings are
grouped according to their address (via, viale, corso, piazza, etc.), and the urban streets are
listed in alphabetical order.
Each card contains the building function (apartment, office, corporate, church, etc.) or
the usual name and the exact location (civic address); a brief description of the present-day
appearance; some important dates about the construction and the past events; the names
of the architects that drew the original plan and the name of those who made important
changes (building history); and the references (books and websites) about the edifice. The
most significant section of the card is the list of architectural elements (i.e. base, doorway,
window, etc.) of each part of the building (façade, side, court, etc.), from base to roof. The
Italian method to enumerate the floors of a building is adopted here: ground floor plus first
floor, second floor, etc.
Each architectural element is associated with the respective stone; this scheme is more
useful to the reader than a basic list of stones, and it allows the reader to decipher the com-
plexity of the constructions. The stones are listed using their commercial name and their
category of use (block, moulding, slab, tile, etc.). Where it is impossible to establish a certain
provenance, only the petrographic classification has been indicated. The list also includes
other building materials, each referring to its own architectural element: brick, terracotta,
ceramic, plaster, stucco, concrete, metal, wood, synthetic resin, glass (except that of the
windows), etc.
The stones used in each building were identified by direct recognitions, also through scaf-
folds during conservation works; archive documents (Archivio Storico Civico) as well as
articles on specialized magazines or books were examined. A discrepancy between what
is currently in place and what is reported in the archive papers and plans was sometimes
noticed. The scientific identification was carried out using optical microscopy on thin sec-
tion and X-ray diffraction on powders, on samples collected in different buildings and on
samples chosen in different quarries together with the comparison to stone collections of
natural history museums and specific texts on dimension and decorative stones. This series
of observations, measurements, facts, information, etc. is joined to the experience gained by
the authors in more than thirty years of investigations about the identification of stones and
their decay phenomena on buildings; this peculiar learning forms the basis on which the text
was developed.
Preface to the first volume ix
GENERAL REFERENCES TO VOLUME 1 (BUILDINGS)
Architectural glossaries
Dictionary of Building Preservation (W. Bucher ed.), Wiley, New York, 1996.
The Oxford Dictionary of Arts (I. Chilvers, H. Osborne, D. Farr eds.), Oxford University Press,
Oxford, 1997.
Pevsner’s Architectural Glossary, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2010.
General texts
Bascapè G.C., I Palazzi della Vecchia Milano, Hoepli Editore, Milano, 1945.
Bascapè G.C., Mezzanotte P., Milano nell’Arte e nella Storia, Bestetti, Milano, 1948.
Fondazione Treccani degli Alfieri, Storia di Milano (20 volumes), Roma, 1953–66.
Guida d’Italia – Milano; Touring Club Italiano, Milano, 1985 (ninth edition, revision 2005).
lombardiabeniculturali.it [website].
Roman period
milanoarcheologia.beniculturali.it [website]
Before Italian Unification (1861)
Bianconi C., Nuova guida di Milano (. . .) e delle Sacre e Profane Antichità Milanesi, Banca del Monte,
Milano, 1979 (first edition 1787).
Biffi G., Pitture, scolture et ordini d’architettura (M. Bona Castellotti and S. Colombo eds.), Le Lettere,
Firenze, 1990.
Latuada S., Descrizione di Milano, Cairoli, Milano, 1738.
Romussi C., Milano attraverso i suoi monumenti, Palazzi, Milano, 1972 (first edition 1872).
After Italian Unification
Andreani L., On the Road City–Milan, Forma Edizioni, Firenze, 2017.
Andreola F., Biraghi M., Lo Ricco G. (editors), Milano – L’architettura dal 1945 a oggi, Hoepli,
Milano, 2018.
Biraghi M., Granato A. (editors), L’architettura di Milano – La città scritta dagli architetti dal dopogu-
erra ad oggi, Hoepli, Milano, 2021.
Bossaglia R., Terraroli V., Il Liberty a Milano, Provincia di Milano–Skira, Milano, 2003.
Bottoni P., Antologia di edifici moderni in Milano, Editoriale Domus, Milano, 1954.
Cassi Ramelli A., Il centro di Milano, Ceschina, Milano, 1971.
Fiorio M.T., Le chiese di Milano, Electa, Milano 1985.
Gramigna G., Mazza S., Milano–Un secolo di architettura milanese dal Cordusio alla Bicocca, Hoepli,
Milano, 2001.
Grandi M., Pracchi A., Milano–Guida all’architettura moderna, Zanichelli, Bologna, 1980.
Muratore G., Capuano A., Garofalo F., Pellegrini E., Guida all’architettura moderna – Italia. Gli ultimi
trent’anni, Zanichelli, Bologna, 1988.
Pierini O.S., Isastia A., Case milanesi 1923–1973. Cinquant’anni di Architettura residenziale a Milano,
Hoepli, Milano, 2017.
Polano S., Mulazzani M., Guida all’architettura italiana del Novecento, Electa, Milano, 1991.
Politecnico di Milano (Ricci G. editor), Milano – Guide di Architettura, Umberto Allemandi & C.,
Torino, 1990.