Torre Snia Viscosa at San Babila, 1937
Rubanuvole (cloud scraper) is the nickname that newspapers of the time (1937) gave to Milan’s first skyscraper, the Torre Snia Viscosa in Piazza San Babila, 59.25 meters high, positioned at the beginning of three streets: Via Bagutta, Via Monte Napoleone, and Corso Matteotti.
Swiss Skyscraper at Piazza Cavour, 1952
The second skyscraper dates from 1952, reaching 80 meters in height—the Swiss building overlooking Piazza Cavour, between Via del Vecchio Politecnico and Via Palestro.
Tradition—and a municipal regulation enacted in the 1930s by order of Mussolini—dictates that the Madonnina atop the Duomo, at 108.5 meters, should not be surpassed by any other building. Consequently, Gio Ponti’s Torre Branca, near the Triennale in Parco Sempione, and the Torre Velasca do not exceed the symbolic 108.5 meters out of respect for the Madonnina.
The “International Triennial Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts” commissioned a group of architects, including Gio Ponti, to design a tower with a panoramic terrace.
The Torre Littoria, later renamed Torre Branca, was erected in Parco Sempione: out of respect for the Madonnina, it stopped at 108 meters in height. In 1938, Mussolini himself revised his 108-meter limit and ordered the construction of a 164-meter bell tower beside the Duomo. However, the war caused the ambitious project to be abandoned.
More than religious sentiment, structural concerns appear to have been the issue: a few meters below Milan’s surface, an aquifer exerts strong pressure on the underground rock layers. A building taller and heavier than the Duomo would, at that time, have proven potentially unstable.
Duomo of Milan, 1386-1932
The construction of Milan’s Duomo lasted approximately six centuries, from 1386 to 1932. In 1774, the statue of the Madonnina was placed on the cathedral’s highest spire, at a height of 108.5 meters, and immediately became known to Milanese as the ‘Madonnina’ (‘mia bela Madunina’ in Giovanni D’Anzi’s song). The term seems incongruous for a statue 4.16 meters tall, but should probably be interpreted more as a term of endearment than as a diminutive.
During the Fascist era, a municipal ordinance, following Mussolini’s directive, stipulated that no building could be constructed taller than the Madonnina. In 1933, the Triennale, founded in Monza in 1923, moved to Milan’s Parco Sempione, where a dedicated venue was built—the Palazzo dell’Arte by architect Giovanni Muzio.
Torre Velasca, 1958
The Torre Velasca is a striking concrete building with an upper section resembling both a mushroom and a medieval tower. With the fall of Fascism and the 108-meter ordinance, traditional respect for the Madonnina remained: the Torre Velasca stopped at 106 meters.
The replica of the Madonnina on the Allianz skyscraper at Milano City
The Torre Isozaki, home to Allianz at Milano City (formerly Fiera Campionaria), has also featured a replica of the Madonnina since November 2015, standing at 207 meters in height, according to tradition.
The Pirelli Tower, 1960
Headquarters of the Regional Council of Lombardy, it measures 127.10 meters (taller than the Madonnina) and immediately became known to Milanese as the ‘Pirellone.’ World War II bombings on Milan caused extensive damage and destroyed Pirelli’s factories and offices in the Cascina Brusada area, next to the central station. On the same site, Piero and Alberto Pirelli commissioned a skyscraper from a group of architects, including Gio Ponti, and engineer Pier Luigi Nervi, between 1956 and 1960. The ‘Pirellone’ exceeded the statue on the Duomo by nearly 20 meters: Cardinal Montini convened an assembly to seek redress, which resulted in a characteristically Italian compromise. A miniature replica (85 cm) of the Madonnina was created and placed atop the Pirelli skyscraper. In 2010, the replica was moved to the top of the new Lombardy Region skyscraper.
© 2020 | Text: Alessandro Feroldi – Photos: Luciana Di Rocco
