Portello is a district ("
quartiere") of
Milan,
Italy, part of the
Zone 8 administrative division of the city, located north-west of the centre. It is best known as a car-manufacturing area, as it used to house
facilities of Alfa Romeo (now dismissed),
Darracq,
Citroën
Citroën () is a French automobile brand. The "Automobiles Citroën" manufacturing company was founded in March 1919 by André Citroën. Citroën is owned by Stellantis since 2021 and previously was part of the PSA Group after Peugeot acquired ...
, and
Fiat
Fiat Automobiles S.p.A. (, , ; originally FIAT, it, Fabbrica Italiana Automobili di Torino, lit=Italian Automobiles Factory of Turin) is an Italian automobile manufacturer, formerly part of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, and since 2021 a subsidiary ...
. The district also includes one of the major
shopping malls in north-western Milan. It is crossed by the Circonvallazione
ring road
A ring road (also known as circular road, beltline, beltway, circumferential (high)way, loop, bypass or orbital) is a road or a series of connected roads encircling a town, city, or country. The most common purpose of a ring road is to assist i ...
. Portello is adjacent to the new
CityLife district.
History
Portello was one of the major urban requalification process in Milan, as the former Alfa Romeo area (385,000 m²) is now being restructured. The project includes a major park called Parco Vittoria
[Parco Vittoria](_blank)
(in Italian) and what will become the largest plaza in Milan
Portello, la Milano dei grandi spazi
' (in Italian) (20,000 m²),
Al Portello la piazza più grande di Milano
' (in Italian) as well as commercial, service and housing infrastructures.
The name of the district comes from the "Strada del Portello" (Portello road), an ancient rural road that used to connect Milan to
Rho
Rho (uppercase Ρ, lowercase ρ or ; el, ρο or el, ρω, label=none) is the 17th letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 100. It is derived from Phoenician letter res . Its uppercase form uses the sa ...
, and that was later replaced by the new Strada del Sempione ("Simplon Road") leading to the
Simplon Pass; the old Portello road is now known as "Via Traiano". In turn, the road was named after the Portello
city gate
A city gate is a gate which is, or was, set within a city wall. It is a type of fortified gateway.
Uses
City gates were traditionally built to provide a point of controlled access to and departure from a walled city for people, vehicles, goods ...
, that was part of the
city walls
A defensive wall is a fortification usually used to protect a city, town or other settlement from potential aggressors. The walls can range from simple palisades or earthworks to extensive military fortifications with towers, bastions and gates ...
and that was located in the surroundings of the modern
Cadorna railway station.
Parco Vittoria
The design of Parco Vittoria, by architects
Charles Jencks and Andreas Kipar, includes several unusual elements, and it is based on the general theme of
time. It will comprise a large round lake, with a strip-shaped promontory that will allow pedestrians to walk to the center of the lake itself. A helix shaped hill (called "The Spiral of Time") will provide a panoramic view of the city; an artistic representation of the
double DNA helix will be placed on top of the hill. Both the lake and the hill will be part of a park section called "Time Garden", partitioned into three areas dedicated to
prehistory,
history and present times.
Grand Prix racing
The district hosted a city circuit in which
1947 Italian Grand Prix was held.
See also
*
Alfa Romeo Portello Plant
Footnotes
{{Districts of Milan
Districts of Milan