The Art Nouveau Milan of Porta Venezia, an extravagant neighborhood

Art Nouveau on the buildings of Porta Venezia

To begin, we introduce you to Palazzo Castiglioni, Milan’s first Art Nouveau palace, built in the early 1900s by architect Giuseppe Sommaruga. The facade, with its beautiful floral decorations, will leave you speechless. Not many people know that at one time, right next to the entrance of the Palazzo Castiglioni, there were two statues of half-naked female figures in attitudes a little too provocative for the Milanese of the time: it was immediately a scandal, the two were soon removed and placed away from prying eyes… where they are today will be revealed to you by our guides during the tour! But along the way we will come across other masterpieces of Milanese Art Nouveau architecture. Casa Berri-Meregalli always surprises us with its rich Art Nouveau decorations in different materials. Not far away is the highly original Galimberti House, entirely covered with decorated ceramics, flowers and human figures. On the corner with Via Melzo, on the other hand, stands a building that once housed the Cinema Dumont, one of the first cinematographs in Milan. Time is running out, but still awaiting us are Casa Campanini and the magnificent palace of the Diana Sheraton Hotel, which some will remember as Bagni Diana, a 19th-century luxury public swimming pool. Let yourself be enchanted by what you see outside these places, a hodgepodge of concrete balconies and caryatids, bizarre decorations at once precious and seductive.

The Art Nouveau peculiarities of Milan

Pay attention: during the guided tour we will also encounter ancient ear-shaped intercoms, a flock of pink flamingos and much more: everything is so surreal, even in the heart of Milan, that it seems to jump out of a Walt Disney movie: just keep your eyes open at all times and your nose pointed upward enjoying the silence.