Neoclassical architecture in Milan

The inquisition was abolished, meetings of religious orders, including those of the Jesuits were forbidden and their assets were transferred to the city[8] where they were used for unprecedented urban renewal programmes.

Some of Milan's most famous institutions such as the Teatro alla Scala, the Brera cultural centre and the reformed Palatine Schools were created during this period.

The rapidly growing population included some of the greatest Italian intellectuals, from Melchiorre Gioia to Vincenzo Monti and Alessandro Volta to Ugo Foscolo and Silvio Pellico.

[14] By decree in 1807, Milan and Venice were endowed with a "Commissione di Ornato" (Embellishment Committee) with vast powers and a wide sphere of activity.

It was a period in which the State and the government itself led the city's cultural life and progress, promoting and funding new activities and rewarding the most deserving citizens and achievements.

The Napoleonic period, while demonstrating some continuity in reinitiating work suspended under the Austrian government, was also characterized by a more monumental and celebratory style, striving to promote Milan as one of the great European capitals with Eclectic and Romantic architectural features.

[3] In 1774, Giuseppe Piermarini, who was entrusted with the renovation project, designed a new wing and provided a new facade with a monumental entrance flanked by Doric columns and surmounted by a balcony.

In addition to new facilities for the observatory, space was made available for the Lombard Institute of Science and Letters while greenhouses were designed for the botanical garden.

[30] As part of the planning for additional space, the facade of the Church of Santa Maria in Brera was demolished and the interior was reworked in Neoclassical style in order to accommodate the Sale Napoleoniche or Napoleonic Hall.

[32] In 1811, the Righetti brothers created the bronze statue of Napoleon based on Antonio Canova's marble original[33] which had been commissioned for the Palazzo del Senato.

In his design for the horseshoe-shaped auditorium, Piermarini was inspired by the architecture of the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples but changed the degree of curvature so as to improve visibility and the acoustics.

The theatre underwent many alterations during the Napoleonic period after which it lost its Neoclassical interiors as a result of work carried out by artists such as Francesco Hayez.

[34] In 1858, after the demolition of several minor buildings, the Scala Square was completed, changing the view of the facade envisaged by Piermarini who had intended it to be seen from a much tighter perspective.

A network of paths through the gardens and on to the adjacent streets included the Boschetti and the steps on the Via Vittorio Veneto which first led up to the ramparts and then into the park.

Of particular note are the main hall on the first floor overlooking the garden and decorated with Corinthian columns and stucco, and the dining room with frescoes of Parnassus by Andrea Appiani from 1811.

The Chariot of Peace (Sestiga della Pace), representing Napoleon's victories, was originally designed to face the Corso Sempione but was later repositioned to overlook the city.

[49] It has a rather simplistic appearance with symmetrical frontages towards the city and the countryside consisting of an Ionic peristasis supporting a triangular tympanum in pink Baveno granite.

[39] Located quite close to the city centre, with its convent parks and private gardens the district became popular for new buildings housing Milan's nobility.

Of the many buildings in the area, the one which most clearly reflects the Neoclassical style is certainly the Palazzo Melzi di Cusano built in 1830 by the engineer Giovanni Bareggi.

The facade is obviously inspired by Simone Cantoni's Palazzo Serbelloni with a central section made up of giant Ionic columns surrounding a small portico surmounted by an entablature and a pediment decorated with bas-reliefs.

It was designed in 1772 by Giuseppe Piermarini who in this instance abandoned the sober and austere style of early Neoclassicism, building an imposing and highly decorated mansion which dominates the street.

Here too, the most lavishly decorated part of the facade is the slightly protruding central section with a series of four giant columns, an entablature and a tympanum enclosed by pilasters.

At 10 Via Manzoni, the Anguissola Antona Traversi constructed between 1775 and 1778 with particular attention to the interior garden, soon changed hands and in 1829 the exterior was reworked by Luigi Canonica who gave it the finish it maintains today.

More ornate than most Milanese Neoclassical buildings, the facade consists of Corinthian pilasters terminating in a frieze with a musical relief clearly inspired by the nearby Scala.

Today, a small section of the street still retains its Neoclassical look although the area underwent a series of changes over the following century, finally suffering bombings during the Second World War and subsequent reconstruction.

[5] A rather unusual occurrence in Milan's artistic development was the reworking of the Piazzo del'Antico Verziere, the fruit market, which was centred around the construction of a fountain.

Two sites exist, each modelled on two classical designs, one based on a rectangular Greek temple with a porch, the other with a central plan inspired by the Pantheon in Rome.

[67] Inspired by the Roman Forum and by the works of the French architect Claude Nicolas Ledoux, plans were drawn up for a development in the vicinity of Sforza Castle consisting of a circular piazza with a diameter of some 500 metres bordered by administrative buildings, ministries, court houses, baths, theatres, universities and museums.

[67] Antolini's original plans were however considered to be one of the most important endeavors of Neoclassical architecture, so much so that the Foro Bonaparte was soon to inspire Naples' semicircular Piazza del Plebiscito with the church of San Francesco di Paola.

The Brera Academy published open competitions for an orphanage (1805), a school (1806), a covered market (1808), an art gallery (1810), a prison (1811), public baths (1812) and a cemetery (1816).