We are aware of the fact that this article has a bizarre title… but you’ll soon understand its meaning. As a matter of fact, we are going to review a building that once was the Ca’ Granda Hospital and then became the University Statale. Pass by Via Festa Del Perdono being careful not to collide with the students running from one class to the other: on your side, you’ll see the fabulous façade of the Hospital-University, long almost 300 meters and divided into three bodies that correspond to just as many building phases. The first one belongs to the XV century and was built by Filarete in cotto lombardo; the second one, the central one, dates back to the XVII century and was built by RIchini who also came up with the idea of the courtyards ; the third and final one is far more recent, dating back to the XIX century and being realized by architect Castellini. The Ca’ Granda was once the most modern hospital in Europe, having also drinkable water. The most innovative element was thought by Filarete, who realized the space following the shape of a X, thus determining four different areas: the ice-house, the wood-house, the spice-house (the pharmacy) and the salt deposit. In the center of the X there was an altar, put there for those sick people who wanted to pray and ask for the absolution of their sins. In 1930, after the Niguarda Central Hospital was built, the Ca’ Granda changed its destination and, instead of sick people, today its hallways are full of students waiting for a mark or chatting about a professor.
The cemetery we mentioned in the title is, on the other side, the Rotonda della Besana, built in 1695 to collect the corps of the Ca Granda’s patients. Today the roundabout doesn’t have the same function, but instead treasures the MUBA, the Museum dedicated to Children: its garden, as a metter of fact, is always full of laughing children that run from one column to the other, playing hide and seek or signing sweet melodies. During lunchtime, young lawyers (the Court Room is a few steps away) populate the Rotonda: they look, amused, at the children and most of the times loosen the knot of their ties to play with them.
Additional information:
Via Enrico Besana, Milano, MI, Italia
Monday: 09.30-15.30 Tuesday-Friday: 09.30-18.30 Saturday-Sunday: 10.00-19.00
02 43980402
www.muba.it
