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Silvia Colombo
PIAZZALE LORETO’ IN MILAN, FROM THE ’20s
TO THE PRESENT. ARCHITECTURAL AND
HISTORICAL MEMORIES FROM A SPACE OF
DIS/AFFECTION
Keywords: cultural studies; history; Italian studies; totalitarianism; memory
studies; contested heritage
Abstract: This study aims to highlight the role played by a significant public place of
Milan, ‘piazzale Loreto’ that, throughout time, has been at the centre of attention for
many reasons, gradually becoming a place of dis/affection and contestation. In fact,
the square, today, is a consequence of its painful past, and even the municipality has
not been able to reconfigure it in a proper way, since it is still a huge void, an
enormous square with an almost ignored commemorative monument at the centre.
But first, it all started during the ’20s, when Milan was changing, becoming a
financial-cultural centre, and piazzale Loreto was a point of reference for tourists
and workers who wanted a comfortable place to stay: actually the “Titanus”, the
biggest hotel of the city, was conceived as a monumental building, born to satisfy the
practical, modern needs of its middle-class hosts. Unfortunately, opened in 1928, it
was already in decline a few years later, due to the economic crisis and the
international, difficult mood of the ’30s, which affected several European and nonEuropean countries, Italy included.
Then, during the Second World War, the building was given to the SS and, in 1943,
bombed by the Anglo-American forces, to the point that, at the end of the conflict,
the hotel was almost destroyed. Nevertheless, it became a passive witness of the
‘Strage di piazzale Loreto’ (piazzale Loreto slaughter) on the 8th of August 1944,
when a Nazi-fascist squad killed fifteen partisans. Again, just a few months later,
after the fall of the regime, the same square was chosen as the ‘revenge place’
where Benito Mussolini, Claretta Petacci and other fascists’ corpses were exhibited
in full public sight. Since even the plan conceived under the Reconstruction was not
able to ‘redeem’ the place, after several decades, the place it is just a traffic
intersection, where no one can easily pass through it by walking. All these
difficulties are still demonstrated by the most recent debate, based on the
(unrealized) idea that piazzale Loreto should house the Tree of Life Expo 2015.
1. A square with an unsolved identity, in a modern city
According to the most common definitions to this day, a square is actually a
place where people can meet, and it is generally considered an open, public area
where one can easily encounter someone, feeling included in that space. As Marc
Augé wrote, “it is the pedestrians who transform a street (geometrically defined as a
Independent scholar, Italy.
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place by town planners) into a space.1“ Moreover – as Mario Isnenghi affirms – we
must consider that “Italy is the country where the piazza expresses itself in a great
variety of historical shapes, in a long-lasting and typical way,2“ and so it has been
since the ancient times.
On the contrary, piazzale Loreto is nowadays one of the ugliest, ‘unfinished’
places of Milan, first of all because it represents the opposite of a square, the
opposite of its ideal identity, where the pedestrians are literally excluded. In fact, it
seems to embody the reversed definition Augé gave, being an enormous urban void,
even if located in a significant point of the city – not far from the historical centre,
and close to one of the most important commercial area, corso Buenos Aires –,
exactly between the city centre and its surroundings.
This is also because it is crossed by a huge amount of cars, driving there by
day and night, and people cannot cross it without several difficulties – unless you
decide to take the underground pedestrian passage, which is the only safe way to
quickly go from one part to the other of the square.
The local administration, during the last decades, has been trying hard to
solve this question; for example, during the summer of 2012, the traffic was
distributed, in order to transform the square into a roundabout.3 But, after all, we
must consider that a similar solution is almost inapplicable throughout the whole
year, during common working days, and at the end of that summer it was actually
abandoned.
Today, this place is still one of the main traffic intersections of Milan, where
people are literally rejected, as ‘declared’ by a lot of elements: the centre of the
square, which is a small green and ‘wild’ area organised over a subterranean parking
lot, is basically unapproachable, considering that pedestrian crossings are
disseminated along its outer limit, but not inside the area. So, the very ‘heart’ of this
space is a difficult match of green, asphalt and a lot of traffic lights; moreover, there
are no points of aggregation but houses and offices where people are closed in.
If we look at it with a wider and more complex perspective, we can argue
that it is not a coincidence that piazzale Loreto preserves these features, considering
that it is the tangible representation of a story of rejection, an historical fracture able
to transform the square itself in a place of disaffection.
Here the definition of ‘contested heritage,’ clearly given by William Logan
and Keir Reeves, is very useful, in order to understand what we are dealing with:
1
Augé 1995: 79-80.
“L'Italia è il Paese in cui in maniera più durevole e tipica si è espressa in tutta la
molteplicità delle sue forme storiche la piazza”. Isnenghi 1997: 43.
3
“Su piazzale Loreto gli uffici tecnici del settore mobilità stanno ragionando da tempo su
una revisione delle sue caratteristiche di distribuzione del traffico. Tanto che nel 2012 era
stata fatta anche una sperimentazione durante i mesi estivi che aveva trasformato il piazzale
in una rotonda” (“Concerning piazzale Loreto, the mobility's technical offices [of the local
administration] have been reflecting for a long time now, on a possible change of the traffic
distribution. During the summer of 2012 an experimentation was put in place, transforming
the square into a roundabout”). See: Montanari 2015.
2
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A range of places, sites and institutions represents the legacy of these painful
periods: massacre and genocide sites, places related to prisoners of war […] These
sites bring shame upon us now for the cruelty and the ultimate futility of the events
that occurred within them and the ideologies they represented. Logan, Reeves (eds.)
2009: 1)
Representing a strong nationalistic power, the present and still unsolved
condition of piazzale Loreto is also shown by a simple web research, 4 whose result
suggests the fragility of a space that went through a delicate past, made of injustice,
assassination and historical repercussions. Then, if we accomplish a more specific
web search by images, we can notice that the major part of the pictures portraying
the square is directly connected to the facts that happened during the fascist regime,
to the concentration camps and the death of Mussolini. These painful fragments of
the past, and the events they show, are now inevitably forging the identity of the
Milanese place, and influencing the opinion of different generations: both the ones
who lived during that period and the others who know the facts throughout
secondary sources (books, pictures, magazines...).
Finally, in order to understand the current conditions of this place, we need
to step back in time, starting from the first decades of the 20th century and arriving at
the present situation: more precisely, we are going through the modern history of
piazzale Loreto, considering it at first, during the early 20th century, as a ‘tourist
place’; then, during WWII, as an historical and controversial site, as under the
regime it was a Nazi-fascist military district, and finally as an ‘unfinished space’ as
it is now.
2. The ‘Hotel Loreto’: from tourism to
crisis, from peace to war
Throughout the first decades of
the 20th century, piazzale Loreto is at the
centre of a huge economic and
productive interest: in fact, even if the
square has already become a great traffic
intersection – a roundabout, where the
tram line is inaugurated at the end of the
19th century – it is still considered a point
of aggregation, being experienced by a
lot of workers coming in or going out of
the city, by national and international
Hotel Loreto Titanus, piazzale Loreto –
tourists and by the inhabitants
Milan (about 1930). Picture taken from
themselves.
Serrantoni 1984-1985.
As a matter of fact, at that time, piazzale Loreto already has its ‘social
dimension,’ embodied by a public point of reference, the ‘Albergo Loreto,’ located
4
See, for example: Arsuffi 2008. “Piazzale Loreto, una delle piazze milanesi più famose e
importanti, eppure una delle più brutte piazze della città” (“Piazzale Loreto, one of the most
important and well-known Milanese squares, and yet one of the ugliest of the city”).
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in the intersection between the roundabout itself, via Padova and viale Monza. 5
Erected during the first years of the century, since the beginning this building was
conceived as a hotel, also hosting a small restaurant and a music hall called
‘Giardino Margherita Teatro varietà.’ Despite this peculiarity, unfortunately its
presence is destined to vanish very soon, because we know that in 1912 the hotel has
already been converted into a movie theatre, the ‘cinema teatro Loreto. 6’ Soon after
this, for a while, tourism in general becomes less important in the whole city,
especially considering the national participation in the Great War, which started in
1915 and concluded three years later. Only right after the conflict, the Italian region
of Lombardy – and so the city of Milan – is able to invest in tourism, as a specific,
productive field, capable of improving the domestic situation.7 In fact – as
underlined by Lara Prosperi – at a moment where tourism was becoming a
significant aspect of the Italian economy, Milan, between WWI and WWII, is
acquiring a strong appeal in that sense, even if considered in a national – and not yet
international – perspective:
After the First World War, also thanks to the enthusiasm given by the great success
reached during the early 20th century in the industrial and commercial area, the city
of Milan was emphasising its multi-shaped and eclectic side. But if its role as an
economic centre was already perceivable, it was more difficult to establish the idea
of a city linked to the tourist side. [… By the way,] a publication of the mid-Thirties
introduced an assertive title: “Milan is a tourist centre!” [… Actually, at that time]
the city was already equipped with a respectable hotel network, appreciable both on
a quantity and quality level [translation mine].8
Prosperi, again, argues that, starting from the ’20s, the whole city is
extending its middle class hospitality network, building new hotels and
accommodating services in the most significant points, such as the historical centre
5
Several pictures of this place (and its transformations) are collected and reproduced in this
website: http://www.giusepperausa.it/cinema_900.html.
6
The importance of the cinema as a public site in urban landscape is underlined, for
example, by Brunetta 1997: 223-251.
7
“Conclusa la prima guerra mondiale, nell'arco di un paio di decenni il turismo ha
cominciato ad essere percepito, a livello internazionale, come una delle attività industriali
meritevoli di specifici investimenti al fine di migliorarne la qualità in termini di offerta […]
Con gli anni Trenta, le scienze sociali e giuridiche hanno cominciato a manifestare un
relativo maggior interesse per il turismo anche nelle sue valenze economiche.” Carera 2002:
21-64.
8
“All’indomani della prima guerra mondiale Milano, sullo slancio dei notevoli successi
conseguiti in campo industriale e commerciale ad inizio Novecento, andava accentuando
sempre più il proprio volto di città eclettica e multiforme. Se poteva ormai essere percepibile
il ruolo di capitale economica d’Italia, più improbabile era ipotizzare l’esistenza di una
‘Milano turistica’ [… Comunque] una pubblicazione di metà anni Trenta proponeva un titolo
dal tono assertivo: ‘Milano è centro turistico!’ [… Infatti a quel tempo] la città era ormai
dotata di una degna organizzazione alberghiera, apprezzabile sia qualitativamente sia
quantitativamente”. Prosperi 2002: 137-138. On the precocity of the Italian tourist network
see also: Carera 2005.
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and piazza Fiume (now piazza della Repubblica), strategic cultural and commercial
crossroads of the city. (Ibidem)
Besides them, also, during the ’20s piazzale Loreto is designed to be a pole
of attraction for the more and more important middle class, interested in comfortable
standards of living and travelling. Actually there, in 1928, after four years of works,9
the colossal Hotel Loreto opens its doors: situated in the corner between piazzale
Loreto and viale Abruzzi, this is a peculiar building, first of all because it is the
biggest hotel of the city. So, at a time where the architectural field passes from the
private to the public and governmental initiative10 – and since 1923 we are talking
about the Partito Nazionale Fascista (Fascist National Party), the extreme right wing
party –, the Hotel Loreto (at least for the first part of its story) is still conceived and
managed by a private company, the Società Anonima Alberghi Ambrosiani.
Member of this company is the architect Ambrogio Gadola11 who, together
with the engineer Carlo Urbano,12 another stockholder of the Milanese firm as well
as works supervisor, is responsible for the blueprints and the construction site of the
hotel.
9
As stated in the archival documents concerning the administration of the Hotel Loreto, we
know that the building was erected between 1924 and 1928 and that its activity already
started in the same 1928. Only the following year, though, we can find its presence in the
“Guide Savallo”, a famous series of guides where tourists could find information about every
hotel of Milan. “Il periodo costruttivo decorrente dall'Ottobre 1924 al Dicembre 1928 […]
l'esercizio alberghiero, iniziato nel 1928”. Milan, Archivio della Camera di Commercio,
Industria, Artigianato e Agricoltura di Milano, CO3/023/03, Registro delle ditte ZII.23.810 –
Società Anonima Alberghi Ambrosiani (Alberghi Ambrosiani spa, fasc. 89460), “Verbale di
Assemblea generale ordinaria e straordinaria 12 aprile 1929”. See also: Guida di Milano e
provincia 1929.
10
See Carera 2002: 21-64; Selvafolta 1994: 283-320.
11
Ambrogio Gadola (1888-1971) is born and raised in Milan. In 1912 he graduated at
Politecnico di Milano (Engineering with specialistation in architecture) and, ever since, he
works under the supervision of his father, owner of the company “Luigi Gadola”. In 1923 he
becomes the manager of the company, succeding his father and keeping this position until his
death, in 1971. As firm's boss, he supervises several construction sites, such as the ones of Cà
de Sass (built for the bank Cariplo, 1939) and the Swiss Centre (1952). After the Second
World War, he is one of the protagonists of the Milanese reconstruction and member of some
of the most Milanese prestigious companies (e.g. member of Camera di Commercio;
president of Banca Popolare di Milano). This short bio is based on the data collected on:
http://www.culturadimpresa.org/assimpredil/organi/organi_gadola.html. On the same web
page are also available bibliographic references.
12
We do not know much about Carlo Urbano, but we know for sure that he was the works
supervisor of the Hotel Loreto's construction site, thanks to the archive documents:
“L’azionista ing. Urbano per raccomandare che nella compilazione del Bilancio siano ben
distinte le voci, e specialmente per ciò che riguarda la costruzione dell’Albergo, della quale
ebbe incarico come Direttore dei lavori, sia tenuta ben distinta la spesa di costruzione da
quelle successive riguardanti modifiche, aggiunte od altro”. Milan, Archivio della Camera di
Commercio, Industria, Artigianato e Agricoltura di Milano, CO3/023/03, Registro delle ditte
ZII.23.810 – Società Anonima Alberghi Ambrosiani (Alberghi Ambrosiani spa, fasc. 89460),
“Verbale di Assemblea generale ordinaria e straordinaria 12 aprile 1929”.
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The size of the building is so massive at the
point that its construction “required specific
architectural studies, due to the difficulties of
founding a nine floor building on irregular and soft
land.13“ The result is hence a majestic, tall, secondclass hotel, with more than 600 rooms, a restaurant
and a launderette, that – with its appearance –
contributes to change the ‘skyline’ of the city. And
its popularity is also confirmed by the circulation of
several picture postcards of the most significant
hotels of Milan,14 portraying the Hotel Loreto and its
easily recognisable shape.
Unfortunately, as soon as 1929, due to the
significant economic crisis spread in the whole of
Europe after the American crack of Wall Street, the
hotel presents several problems connected to the
management of the building; and in this delicate
situation, neither the reduction of the room prices nor
Giannino Castiglioni,
the change of its name or the addition of new
Monument dedicated to the
services are able to solve the situation.
15 partisans (1960) as it is
Actually, in 1930, “a greater respectability
today – Milan (2016).
[is given] to the hotel, by calling it LORETO –
Picture taken by Silvia
TITANUS, improving its services and giving it a
Colombo.
new dining room, appropriate to the clients’
15
requirements. “ Among all of these changes, the naming issue is of particular
interest, because the hotel, acquiring its second denomination as ‘Titanus,’ clearly
echoes the more and more influential ‘mythology’ of the fascist regime. And even if
unconsciously, it feels like in this precise passage lays the inevitable, sad future of
the building.
In the meanwhile, anyway, the administration tries to solve the economic
crisis afflicting the hotel and, even though this happens thanks to external events, it
seems that in 1933 the situation is progressively improving: at that time, in fact, the
13
Serrantoni 1984-1985: 49.
As resulting from a web research, the Hotel Loreto, being portrayed in several postcards of
the first decades of the last century, seems very popular and on top of the most prestigious
hotels of Milan, such as Hotel Aosta, near the Central Station, Hotel Metropole and Hotel
Commercio, situated in the very heart of the city.
15
Viene dato “maggiore decoro all'Albergo, ora denominato LORETO – TITANUS,
migliorandone i servizi e dotandolo di una nuova sala per ristorante adeguata alle esigenze
della clientela.” Milan, Archivio della Camera di Commercio, Industria, Artigianato e
Agricoltura di Milano, RS19677, “Bilancio al 31 dicembre 1929”.
The change of the hotel's name is registered and stamped on the 5th of February 1930. See:
Milan, Archivio della Camera di Commercio, Industria, Artigianato e Agricoltura di Milano,
Milan, Archivio della Camera di Commercio, Industria, Artigianato e Agricoltura di Milano,
CO3/023/03, Registro delle ditte ZII.23.810 – Società Anonima Alberghi Ambrosiani
(Alberghi Ambrosiani spa, fasc. 89460), “Denunzia di modifica.”
14
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Loreto Titanus counts 19.823 guests. Moreover, as written in the archive documents
“undoubtedly this year [1933] the trend of the hospitality field indicated a very
important increase from April onwards, both for the recurring holy year and for the
opening of the Triennale [a significant triennial art exhibition hosted at Palazzo
dell’Arte, in Milan].”16
But then, during the following period, we witness a gradual and unstoppable
decline: just to mention some examples, the ‘bagni diurni’ (diurnal, public baths)
and the restaurant, directly run by the Società Anonima Alberghi Ambrosiani, are
constantly negative balance sheet items (1934-1935);17 not to mention that the costs
concerning staff, food and fuel are increasing, quickly vanishing all the other
revenues.18
At this point, and especially with the beginning of the Second World War
(Italy entered in the conflict only in 1940), the decay of the building is almost
unavoidable: “this delicate international, political moment damages particularly the
hospitality network, reducing the tourist movements.19“
In fact the Hotel Loreto Titanus in 1939 goes through several financial
losses,20 and just the following year the company certifies the minimum peak in
terms of visitors,21 to the point that the administration is forced to reconvert some of
the numerous rooms – 150 more precisely – in two apartments to rent, hence
reducing the hotel’s capacity.22 However, it is only between 1942 and 1943 that
important turning points occur to the hotel and, more generally, to the square: firstly
the building – a part from the rooms, the apartments, the launderette, the restaurant
16
“Indubbiamente quest’anno l’andamento dell’industria alberghiera cittadina segnò un
incremento assai notevole dal mese di Aprile in avanti, e per la ricorrenza dell’anno santo e
per l’apertura della Triennale”. Milan, Archivio della Camera di Commercio, Industria,
Artigianato e Agricoltura di Milano, RS19677, “Bilancio al 31 dicembre 1933.”
17
See: Milan, Archivio della Camera di Commercio, Industria, Artigianato e Agricoltura di
Milano, RS19677, “Bilancio al 31 dicembre 1934” and “Bilancio al 31 dicembre 1935.”
18
“Hanno subito sensibili incrementi tutti i costi, ed in ispecie quelli inerenti al personale, ai
combustibili ed ai viveri.” Milan, Archivio della Camera di Commercio, Industria,
Artigianato e Agricoltura di Milano, RS19677, “Bilancio al 31 dicembre 1934” and
“Bilancio al 31 dicembre 1937.”
19
“Il delicato momento politico internazionale colpisce in modo speciale le aziende
alberghiere, diradandosi il movimento turistico”. Milan, Archivio della Camera di
Commercio, Industria, Artigianato e Agricoltura di Milano, RS19677, “Relazione dei
Sindaci” [1938].
20
Milan, Archivio della Camera di Commercio, Industria, Artigianato e Agricoltura di
Milano, RS19677, “Relazione del Consiglio di Amministrazione” [1939].
21
“Le presenze hanno segnato il minimo assoluto dall’inizio dell’attività”. See: Milan,
Archivio della Camera di Commercio, Industria, Artigianato e Agricoltura di Milano,
RS19677, “Relazione del Consiglio di Amministrazione” [1940].
22
“In questo esercizio furono completate le opere di riforma di alcuni locali che, in
conformità al permesso avuto dal competente Ministero, sono stati detratti dall’uso
alberghiero per essere destinati ad abitazione civile”. See: Milan, Archivio della Camera di
Commercio, Industria, Artigianato e Agricoltura di Milano, RS19677, “Relazione del
Consiglio di Amministrazione” [1941].
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and the garage – is reorganised in order to host two anti-aircraft shelters;23 then it is
confiscated by the German SS, responsible for the transformation of the hotel into a
military district of the Nazi forces, and it is finally bombed by the Allies Air Forces.
The result [of the annual balance] was seriously influenced by the requisition of our
hotel, executed by the German F.F.A.A.; requisition which has been made with rates
valid for the year 1936 […] We have shouldered great costs for the definitive
reorganisation of our two anti-aircraft shelters and we suffered several losses for the
partial and temporary suspension of the activity both of the hotel and the ‘albergo
diurno,’ due to the bombings happened during February and August [1943], which
have caused a lot of damages to the building and its technical equipment in the
amount of 1.000.000 […] and the restaurant is still rented [translation mine]24.
Even though the damages occurred to the hotel were repaired very soon by
the local Genio Civile, the story of piazzale Loreto – and so of the entire city of
Milan – is describable in a few words: desolation, destruction and ruin. We can see
that reading the words of Franco Loi, one of the intellectuals who gave us some of
the best (or the worst, depending on the point of view) descriptions of the city at that
time:
I have a terrifying memory of the city of Milan in August 1943 […] When we came
back, they stopped us at Rogoredo and we finished the trip home partly on a horsedrawn carriage, until corso Lodi, and then on a truck up till Piazzale Loreto and then
on foot to our house. The buildings gutted, the train tracks bent skywards, and dust
and shouting all over the place, and dogs and people gasping among the rabble […]
Another roundup [of the Germans] was on the Corso Buenos Aires. They blocked
the entire avenue from Porta Venezia to Loreto [translation by the author].25
In a sufficiently short timespan – the first four decades of the 20th century –
the square passes from a positive, social dimension to a negative condition, forcedly
imposed by the political and historical circumstances. It is exactly at this moment
that piazzale Loreto, still dominated by the Hotel Loreto Titanus but already
abandoned by tourists, starts becoming a large void within a ghostly, desperate city.
Nevertheless the worst part of its story is still yet to come.
23
“Per contro il bilancio ha dovuto sopportare una notevole spesa per la costruzione dei
rifugi antiaerei”. See: Milan, Archivio della Camera di Commercio, Industria, Artigianato e
Agricoltura di Milano, RS19677, “Relazione dei Sindaci” [1942].
24
Ha influito enormemente sul risultato la requisizione del nostro albergo da parte delle
F.F.A.A. Germaniche, requisizione che è stata operata con prezzi vigenti nel 1936 […]
Abbiamo dovuto sostenere una spesa non indifferente per la sistemazione definitiva dei
nostri due ricoveri antiaerei ed abbiamo subito una notevole perdita per la parziale
sospensione temporanea dell’attività dell’albergo e dell’albergo Diurno in seguito alle due
incursioni aeree del febbraio e dell'agosto che hanno causato danni al fabbricato ed agli
impianti per circa 1.000.000 […] il ristorante è sempre concesso in affitto.” Milan, Archivio
della Camera di Commercio, Industria, Artigianato e Agricoltura di Milano, RS19677,
“Relazione del Consiglio di Amministrazione” [1943].
25
Loi 2008: 68-69. The book is translated from Italian; the original version is entitled Aria de
la memoria, and has been published by Einaudi (Turin) in 2005.
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3. A place for fascist and antifascist repercussions
Even though an armistice was signed between Italy and the Allies (8
September 1943), the Partito Nazionale Fascista – with the help of the German
troops – continues to be the dominant component of the totalitarian government,
especially in North Italy, not yet released by the Anglo-American armies.
Actually in the northern regions of the country, a more and more difficult
coexistence between two opposite political forces takes place: from one side the
Repubblica di Salò (or Repubblica Sociale Italiana, 1943-1945), wanted by the Nazifascists and still lead by Mussolini; from the other, the antifascist movements
organised by the partisans within the Comitato di Liberazione Nazionale (National
Liberation Committee, 1943-1947), principal voice of the Italian Resistance.
On a minor scale, this tension is present and intensely perceivable also in
Milan, where the last part of World War II reaches a climax of inconceivable
violence: within a year, this violence is able to literally explode on two different
occasions, both of them against the background of piazzale Loreto.
But let us start from the beginning. 8 August 1944: two explosive devices
are placed on a German truck parked just outside the former Hotel Loreto Titanus,
now occupied by the Wehrmacht; at the moment of the explosion 12 people are
injured (the driver included) and other 11 civilians die.
According to the Nazi forces, this event must be considered a terrorist attack
ascribable to the partisans; and it is no coincidence that, only two days later, they are
ready to call their revenge, under the leadership of Theodor Saevecke, then known
as ‘boia di piazzale Loreto’ (executioner of piazzale Loreto).
That day, at dawn, 15 partisans26 already incarcerated for being antifascists
are conducted outside the Milanese prison of San Vittore in order to be relocated –
they say – to a German forced-labour camp. Totally unaware of what would have
happened in a few hours, they are instead conducted to piazzale Loreto: then, placed
in front of a fence, just outside the petrol station Natale Battaglia, they are shot by
the Nazis, and their corpses left there for the whole day, one on top of the other.
As easily imaginable, the German condemnation of the antifascist groups,
being expressed in such a cruel and violent way, creates a shocking reaction among
the common people, but also among the intellectuals. Lucia D’Ambrosio – a
Milanese woman recently interviewed by a national newspaper –, for example,
perfectly remembers the event and she recalls the horrific situation by saying
on the 10th of August 1944 I met the terror in piazzale Loreto […] the flies covered
the corpses, the fascists prevented the victims' families from tending to their loved
ones; instead, they provoked – with weapons in their hands – the commuters coming
into Milan or the ones leaving the city to go back home, to stop and look at the
26
They are, in alphabetical order: Antonio Bravini, Giulio Casiraghi, Enzo Del Riccio,
Andrea Esposito, Domenico Fiorani, Umberto Fogagnolo, Giovanni Galimberti, Vittorio
Gasparini, Emidio Mastrodomenico, Angelo Poletti, Salvatore Principato, Andrea Ragni,
Eraldo Soncini, Libero Temolo, Vitale Vertemati.
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victims carefully, as they must remember that the real murderers were the partisans,
not the Germans27 [translation by the author].
From another point of view, also, in the same year 1944, the artist Aligi
Sassu,28 strongly moved by that scene, decides to paint the artwork The Martyrs of
Piazzale Loreto (I martiri di piazzale Loreto), now preserved at Galleria Nazionale
d'Arte Moderna in Rome. This painting is the visual and personal reinterpretation of
a dramatic public scene, tragically inspired by one of the most well-known
photographs of the slaughter, frequently reproduced in the newspapers in association
with the motto “Milanesi, ricordate” (“Milanese people, please remember”). The
condemnation of the Nazi troops, here, is quite clear, especially if we consider the
word “martyrs” used in the title; the most poignant description of the artworks,
anyway, comes from Sassu himself, who affirms:
I painted I martiri di piazzale Loreto in August 1944, just after I saw the mockery
the fascist reprobates made of our comrades' corpses. But still, despite the revolt and
anger I felt, despite my trying to express what I saw, there was in me peace rather
than hate, but also an immense sadness about that fratricide. From those bleeding
and lifeless bodies there came a warning: peace, peace [translation by the author].29
Another example of that ‘flood of remembrance’ is well-represented by a
poem by Franco Loi, written in local dialect and dedicated to piazzale Loreto; here
the square, dominated by the damaged building of the Hotel Titanus, is personified
by a hand covered by dead skin and both of them – the square and the building – are
derelict testimonies of an unfair slaughter, where the author himself lost his teacher
and his best friend's father.
… piassa Luret, serva del Titanus
27
“Le mosche si accanivano sui corpi, i fascisti impedivano a familiari dei morti di far loro
una carezza e invece incitavano, armi in pugno, i pendolari che arrivavano a Milano o da lì
partivano per tornare a casa, a fermarsi e guardarli bene, perché fosse chiaro che gli assassini
erano i partigiani, non loro”. Ibidem.
28
Aligi Sassu (1912-2000), born in Milan, in the first part of his career joins the Futurists
thanks to this friend, Bruno Munari. Then, between the ’20s and the ’30s he gets close to
daily-life subjects, like sportsmen or cars; being arrested, at the end of the ’30s Sassu starts to
collaborate with the antifascist group Corrente, but he still prefers to work and exhibit by his
own. During the following decades, he works with different materials and techniques such as
ceramic and murals. In 1996, when Sassu gives a significant amount of artworks (356) to the
city of Lugano, the Fondazione Aligi Sassu and Helenina Olivares opens its doors to the
public. For further information see at least: Sassu: catalogo generale della pittura 2011-2012
Sassu e Corrente 1930-1943 2012.
29
“Ho dipinto I martiri di Piazzale Loreto nell’agosto 1944, subito dopo aver visto il ludibrio
che la canaglia repubblichina faceva dei corpi dei nostri fratelli. Eppure vi era in me, nel
fuoco e nell’ansia che mi agitava, nel cercare di esprimere quello che avevo visto, una grande
pace e non odio, ma una tristezza immensa per la lotta fratricida. Da quei corpi sanguinanti e
inerti sorgeva un monito: pace, pace.” Aligi Sassu in
http://www.aligisassu.it/schtxtit/sch034.htm.
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ti’, verta,
me na man da la pell morta
i gent che passa par j a vör tuccà,
e là, a la steccada che se sterla,
sota la colla di manifest strasciâ,
l'è là che riden, là, che la gent surda
la streng i gamb, e la vurìss sigà […].30
The situation is so delicate and devastating that even Benito Mussolini in
person condemns the inhumanity of this extreme action, thinking that this episode is
a huge mistake for the Italian politics: actually, empathising with the partisan
victims, for the major part of the Italians would have been easier and more
predictable than taking the side of the fascist parties (both German and Italian).
Moreover, according to Mussolini, this would have negatively affected the political
favour towards the Partito Nazionale Fascista and, on the contrary, reinforced the
antifascist groups. In the end, the leader of the PNF is able to trace a lucid prediction
of what could have been happened: hate by the Italian people towards national and
German armed forces; increasing of the number of partisan rebels; desertion
organised by the workers within their offices. (Franzinelli 2012.) But, as Franzinelli
underlines, Mussolini forgot a fourth, essential consequence: “the gradual
accumulation of the lust for revenge, with the consequent preparation […] of further
killings, also realised […] ‘in a convulsionary way and without any rules’” (Ibidem)
[translation by the author].
And in fact, the Milanese people did not forget what happened at that time:
only eight months later, in April 1945, piazzale Loreto is again at the centre of the
international attention, but for another reason. On the 25th of April, Italy is finally
released from the fascist regime: Mussolini and his lover, Claretta Petacci, are
stopped by the partisan forces near the Italian-Swiss borders, while they are trying to
escape.
It is the end of the month and they are immediately shot – without any
process – just outside a villa of Giulino di Mezzegra, near Como, together with other
16 fascist representatives. This episode suggests not only the vindictive intention
shown by the local Comitato di Liberazione Nazionale, but also marks the final
chapter of the Italian fascist regime.
Not to mention that, in order to fully accomplish its revenge, the CLN
decides to bring all the fascists’ corpses in Milan and, more precisely, in piazzale
Loreto. In that way, on the 29th of April 1945, 18 corpses of the most significant
representatives of the Partito Nazionale Fascista are thrown and then hung upside
down in a symbolic place, the same petrol station where – a few months before – 15
partisans were unjustly killed for a crime they did not commit. As written by
Stephen Gundle, “Mussolini’s dead body was turned into a spectacle in retribution
for the blood Fascism had spilled or caused to be spilled by its taking the country
30
“Piazza Loreto, dominated by the Titanus/you, open/like a hand covered by dead
skin/seem that you want to touch the people passing by/and there, near the damaged
fence/under the glue of the ripped up posters/is there that they laugh, there, that deaf
people/tighten their legs and would like to scream [translation by the author]”. See: Loi 1975.
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into war […] His ignominious death symbolised the end of an enchantment, while
the public display of his cadaver ensured that there could be no doubt whatsoever
that he would never return.” (Gundle 2013: 241-2.)
4. ‘Piazzale Loreto’ and its historical condition: erasing the past, avoiding the
future
At the end of the Second World War, piazzale Loreto becomes a symbol of
the national liberation from a totalitarian regime but, in order to definitely erase its
painful past, the square needs to change its aspect, becoming something different, a
modern point of reference of the city, where there are no signs of the previous
wounds. In that way, during the reconstruction conducted immediately after the
conflict, in piazzale Loreto several changes occur, giving it its present identity as
‘unfinished place.’
First of all, the Hotel Loreto Titanus – bombed, occupied by the German SS
and then, in 1945, sell to the Pirelli company31 – between the ’50s and the ’60s is
finally demolished32 from the ground and, in a decade, it will be substituted by a
huge office building in glass, iron and concrete (which is still in place), designed by
the architect Claudio Dini.
Moreover, during the same period, the whole piazzale is dismantled, due to
the subterranean construction of the subway green line – and the dismantling process
was huge, if we consider that now the Loreto stop is one of the most populated of the
entire city, as it is the intersection between the green and the red line.
From another, different perspective – a past-oriented one –, the desire to
recall the partisans’ slaughter is since the beginning materialised in a first, simple
but significant commemorative monument, erected exactly where the partisans were
shot: a memorial stone, where all the victims’ names are engraved on the surface,
surrounded by several garlands. This “intentional monument,” quoting Andrea
Pinotti (and before him Alois Riegl33), being the representation of a tragic fact, is
31
“Infatti il 26 maggio 1945, con Decreto n. 72, la Commissione Militare Alloggiamenti
Alleati requisiva la parte dello stabile destinato ad albergo a favore della Pirelli – Società per
Azioni, per uso uffici. Detta Società ha posto mano alla sistemazione che è tuttora in corso”.
Milan, Archivio della Camera di Commercio, Industria, Artigianato e Agricoltura di Milano,
RS19677, “Relazione del Consiglio di Amministrazione” [1945].
32
Even if the timeline is not so indisputable, according to the archival documents it seems
that the building of the Hotel Loreto Titanus is demolished in 1960, when the headquarters of
the Pirelli company are moved from piazzale Loreto to piazza Duca d’Aosta. “Nella nostra
ultima relazione vi avevamo informato dell'imminente trasferimento nel nuovo Centro Pirelli
degli uffici della Pirelli S.p.A.” Milan, Archivio della Camera di Commercio, Industria,
Artigianato e Agricoltura di Milano, RS19677, “Verbale di deposito di bilancio” [1959].
Different is the indication given by Panizza in his thesis, but there are no other
bibliographical or archival references: “Nel 1950 fu demolito l’Hotel Titanus.” See: Panizza
2010: 40.
33
“Richiamando il carattere ‘intenzionale’ evochiamo qui, necessariamente, un testo
fondativo della teoria della monumentalità: il celeberrimo e ormai più che centenario ‘Culto
moderno dei monumenti’, sorta di premessa gnoseologica che Alois Riegl volle apporre al
suo Progetto di un’organizzazione legislativa della conservazione in Austria (Riegl, 1903).
Qui lo storico austriaco distingue fra monumenti intenzionali (gewollte), cioè oggetti
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also meant as something able to raise a reaction of the public and to officially martyr
the victims of the slaughter.
A few years later, the artist Giannino Castiglioni is called to realise the final
version of the monument that, in the end, is not able to leave a mark on the square34:
a sort of thin and long stele realistically representing the martyr San Sebastian on
one side, and bearing the names of the victims on the other.
Comparing the result with
the historical facts, we can say
that this monument is an
‘accommodating souvenir’ of
what actually happened; and this
is partially ascribable to a
‘delayed timing’ (the monument is
inaugurated in 1960) of the public
administration, and partially to the
position of the monument, moved
away from its original position
and then located at the corner
between the square and via
Present conditions of piazzale Loreto during a
Andrea Doria.
summer day – Milan (2016). Picture taken by Silvia
Since then, the identity of
Colombo.
piazzale Loreto changed a lot, even if it is still ongoing, and yet incomplete. This is
clearly demonstrated by the renaming process encountered by the square after the
two global conflicts: after WWII, and for a short period, piazzale Loreto is called
‘piazza dei 15 martiri’ (15 martyrs square), with a clear, political aim; more recently,
in 2005, Stefano Zecchi, then a council member, proposes to change its name in
‘piazza della Concordia’ (Harmony square).
But in the end, despite all the debates, the square still keeps its historical
name, coming from an ancient church, built there during the 15th century (then
demolished), and all the proposals are just an evidence of the cultural and
commemorative instability of that place.
Evidence which is furthermore confirmed by its present situation: after
several decades, it is inevitable that the square reveals itself as a consequence of its
past; but, in the end, the Milanese municipality hasn’t been capable of reconfiguring
its identity in a proper way.
Quoting again Andrea Pinotti,35 the result is that piazzale Loreto, nowadays,
is a huge square with an almost ignored commemorative and paradoxical monument
in it: conceived to remember something, it has been promoting the oblivion (or, in
volontariamente ed esplicitamente progettati e realizzati a fini monumentali, e monumenti
non intenzionali (ungewollte)”. See: Pinotti 2014: 19.
34
Giannino Castiglioni (1884-1971) is a painter and sculptor born in Milan and lived
between this city and Lierna, near Como. One can find his works – just to mention a few
examples, in the Cimitero Monumentale in Milan, in the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana and Duomo
di Milano. For further information see: Guglielmi 2016.
35
Pinotti 2014.
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certain cases, neo-fascist reactions) of a significant historical episode of the Italian
past.
Moreover, the square is most of all a traffic intersection, hence for bikers
and pedestrians it represents a barrier, a difficult place to live in but also to pass
through. Also from the aesthetic point of view, the square bears an unsolved
problem: if you look at it, you can see that it is a simple aggregation of buildings
conceived during different periods, put one next to the other, without a rational
planning. The consequence is that it is a space full of contradictions: it is repulsive,
but it is almost inevitable passing through it; it is a commemorative place, but it has
no evident signs of remembrance, and it is a square being at the same time a
breaking point of the city.
Difficulties are still demonstrated by the most recent debates about it: the
web, for example, is sprinkled by articles disapproving the present, unsatisfying
situation of the square and – on the other side – proposing planning solutions of a
possible configuration of the space36.
One of the most recent and corroborated proposals talks about the possible
relocation of the Tree of Life, a huge installation conceived by the entrepreneur and
producer Marco Balich for Expo 2015 (hosted by the city of Milan), into the centre
of piazzale Loreto. Still in this case, the main problem is directly related to the
commemorative side of the square, as we can read in this article: “Does the Tree of
Life imply the risk of blurring the need to remember […] or […] would it be a way
to replace the feeling of death of that place with a symbol of life?37“ Again,
reporting the opinion of the ANPI (the national association of the partisans): “That
would be just a confused note, capable of creating only disorientation: the symbol of
piazzale Loreto already exists and it is the monument remembering the 15
partisans.38“
For now, even if it seems that this solution will not be put in practice, since
the Tree of Life is still in place and functioning in the Expo area, a change of
perspective and a definitive plan for the whole area is urgent and clearly still needed
by the citizens and the inhabitants.
In conclusion, today piazzale Loreto is a contested place with a lack of
identity, also because of an extremely heavy historical and cultural baggage. After
being a point of connection for the inhabitants and the tourists, at the beginning of
the last century, with the events occurred during the Second World War – the
slaughter of piazzale Loreto and, then, the brutal end of the fascist regime – it
experienced a deep collective fracture.
After the conflict, neither the efforts by the ANPI, with the monument
entitled to the partisans, nor the Comune itself, which attempted to transform the
square in a crucial point of the city, were able to find a proper urban and spatial
36
See, for example, Panizza 2010.
“L’Albero della vita rischia di offuscare la necessità del ricordo […] oppure […] sarebbe
un modo per sostituire il senso di morte legato a quel luogo con un simbolo di vita?” De
Vito 2015.
38
“Sarebbe una nota stonata che creerebbe solo confusione: il simbolo di piazzale Loreto c’è
già ed è il monumento che ricorda i 15 partigiani.” Morosi 2015.
37
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reconfiguration. The problem is not yet solved and the still ongoing debate about
piazzale Loreto demonstrates that: a change is needed but the solution is not clear or,
at least, it does not seem unequivocal.39 Maybe in the next future, when the historical
distance from the wounds of the past will become more objective, someone will be
able to reconfigure the square, possibly keeping the historical memory of its past
and, at the same time, giving a new perspective towards the future.
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39
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