OFFISALONE SPECIAL!
Follow us, on the occasion of Design Week 2021, among the curious installations scattered in the heart of the historic center, between the courtyards of the Ca’ Granda and Piazza Duomo. In the surprising combination of theart andarchitecture of the past and the novelties of contemporary design, the discovery of a Milan throbbing with life, history and creativity will leave you speechless...
The importance of the benefactors of Ca’ Granda
Our guided tour to discover the Ca’ Granda and the streets surrounding it begins at the recently opened museum dedicated to the Treasures of the Ca’ Granda, created to evoke the history of the Ospedale dei Milanesi, show the public its artistic wonders and celebrate the fundamental role of benefactors in the now centuries-old life of this important city institution. Before delving into the history of the ancient Ospedale Maggiore, commissioned by Francesco Sforza in 1456,
we meet with our guides, the characters portrayed in the many portraits in the Ca’ Granda’s beautiful picture gallery. Men and women, ordinary people or illustrious figures, often portrayed by the skillful brush of the most prestigious artists of past centuries, such as Giovanni Segantini, Francesco Hayez, Giuseppe Molteni, Mosé Bianchi, Carlo Carrà, il Pitocchetto, Filippo Abbiati, Emilio Longoni, Mario Sironi… From the beginning of the seventeenth century, in fact, the Ca’ Granda got into the habit of rewarding its benefactors with a gratulatory portrait, the execution of which was entrusted to the most promising painters of the Lombard territory.
Ca’ Granda from hospital to university
But when and how was the Milanese Hospital born? It was born as Spedale dei Poveri at the behest of Francesco Sforza, who earmarked an area of his estates for the construction of a place of shelter for the destitute. Tuscan architects got their hands on it, including the famous Antonio Averlino known as the Filarete, who remains in the memory of us all for the header of the central courtyard of what is now the seat of theUniversity of Studies. Strolling through the courtyards of the present university, it is a must to admire its architectural elegance of Brunelleschian setting and its all-Lombard decorative liveliness, noting the stylistic stratifications of a complex that has grown and changed over the centuries, along with the city, until it housed droves of university students in the classrooms created, in the post-World War II period, after the careful restoration by Piero Portaluppi and Liliana Grassi and the subsequent expansion of the structure.
Ca’ Granda: a place of treasures, but also glimpses of the city
But the itinerary led by our guides does not end here: around the Ca’ Granda develop some of the city’s oldest streets, directories from which it is possible to glimpse all the beauty of the city. Along Via Festa del Perdono, crossing Largo Richini, we will contemplate the apse of San Nazaro, the Basilica of ancient Ambrosian foundation that overlooks Corso di Porta Romana, once the site of the local market… And a few steps further on, we can already glimpse the white spires of the Duomo, the last Milanese stop of a unique walk, rediscovering the past of our city!
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