Milan is a “liquid” city, but it doesn’t know it! To think of it this way may seem strange, since it is hundreds of kilometers from the sea. After all, a scapigliato painter said that the sea is but “a great ship with only one shore“! So what would that mysterious little lake behind the cathedral , of which legends have fabled for centuries, look like today, to take one example? What are its origins? It originated when the construction of the Milanese Cathedral began: back then, the large blocks of Candoglia marble needed to build the Duomo were transported from the Ossola Valley to Milan, aboard the barges that sailed the Navigli, until they arrived in the vicinity of the “Fabbrica” right in an artificial lake that was later covered.
Alberto Savinio also recalls that throughout the early 1900s people could go to Milan by boat. The landing place for the blocks was located right by the small lake of Santo Stefano, which was buried in 1857 to ensure healthy air.
Even today the curious name of Laghetto Street reminds us of this! The marble blocks for the Cathedral were marked with the now famous inscription a.u.f. Thanks to this acronym, everyone knew that those barges were exempt from paying duties and taxes, since, precisely, they carried marble “ad usum fabricae,” that is, for the construction of the Milanese Cathedral. And until not so long ago, the frequent expression “a ufo” in fact meant “without paying,” “a sbafo,” “a scrocco”!
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