Palazzo Castiglioni is an

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau (; ) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style is known by different names in different languages: in German, in Italian, in Catalan, and also known as the Modern ...

palace of

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

, northern

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

. It was designed by

Giuseppe Sommaruga Giuseppe Sommaruga (1867–1917) was an Italian architect of the Liberty style or Art nouveau movement. He was the pupil of Camillo Boito and Luca Beltrami to the Brera Academy in Milan. His monumental architecture exerted some influence''Futur ...

in the

Liberty style Liberty style ( it, Stile Liberty) was the Italian variant of Art Nouveau, which flourished between about 1890 and 1914. It was also sometimes known as ''stile floreale'', ''arte nuova'', or ''stile moderno''. It took its name from Arthur Lasenby ...

and built between 1901 and 1903. The rusticated blocks of the basement imitate a natural rocky shape, while the rest of the decorations are inspired by 18th century

stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and a ...

s. The building is now used as the seat of the Unione Commercianti di Milano (Traders' Union of Milan).

History

The palace was built for entrepreneur Ermengildo Castiglioni, who chose architect

because of his anticonventional solutions. Castiglioni wanted the palace to reflect his wealth and ''grandeur''; the choice of the

, a new and "trendy" style, for a building that would be located in the historic centre of Milan, was intended by Castiglioni and Sommaruga as a sort of challenge to the Milanese conservative élite. The most provocative element of the original design turned out to be a couple of nude female statues, by

Ernesto Bazzaro Ernesto Bazzaro (29 May 1859, Milan – 18 May 1937, Milan) was an Italian sculptor. Biography Like his elder brother, Leonardo, Ernesto Bazzaro studied at the Brera Academy in Milan, which he attended from 1875, winning the Luigi Canonica P ...

, decorating the facade; these raised such turmoil that the local newspaper ''

Guerin Meschino ''Guerin Meschino'' (Italian: ''The Shabby Guerin'') was a weekly satirical magazine which existed in Milan between 1882 and 1949 with an interruption in the period 1925–1943. It had an anti-Fascist and leftist political stance which led to th ...

'' published a series of satyrical illustrations on them, and the Milanese population renamed the palace "Cà di ciapp" (in

Milanese Milanese (endonym in traditional orthography , ') is the central variety of the Western dialect of the Lombard language spoken in Milan, the rest of its metropolitan city, and the northernmost part of the province of Pavia. Milanese, due to t ...

, "house of buttocks"). The statues, that were intended to represent "Peace" and "Industry", were eventually removed and are now used as decorations of another Milanese palace also by Sommaruga, Villa Faccanoni. The furniture was destroyed by the US army that occupied it in 1945-46 and used it as wood for heating. Only decorations, facades, iron work and lamps were saved. The building was put under the protection of the Beaux Arts on March 5, 1957. In 1967 the Castiglioni family sold the building to the Union of Commerce because of high costs of maintenance and a tax to finance the construction of the subway. Arch.

Eugenio Gerli Eugenio Gerli (15 July 1923 – 2 October 2013) was an Italian architect and designer. In an intense working life spanning more than six decades, Eugenio Gerli explored many different areas of his profession. He built villas, apartment blocks, off ...

e Ing. Giorgio Keffer signed the project to transform it in an office building. They kept the entrance, the staircase, some large rooms on the first floor, the facades and the house on via Marina. The remaining part was emptied, an auditorium was built under the garden, a new building was built next to the house on via Marina. The Art Nuoveau expert Rossana Bossaglia opposed the project and asked to use the building as Art Nouveau Museum. The superintendent approved the project because the Trader's Union of menaced to let the building deteriorate. In the 150th anniversary of the birth and the 100th anniversary of the death of Arch. Sommaruga Confcomercio has organized a convention in the building on October 20, 2017 with an exhibit of pictures of the Castiglioni family and has opened it to free guided tours on October 21 and 22 ottobre from 10 am to 6 pm.Sommaruga e il Liberty spiegato, Convegno, Sala Colucci Palazzo Castiglioni, Venerdì 20 ottobre 14.00/16.30

Notes

Sources

* E. Bairati and D. Riva, ''Guide all'architettura in Italia: il Liberty in Italia'', Editori Laterza. * Pierfrancesco Sacerdoti, ''L'influenza di Giuseppe Sommaruga nell'architettura milanese'' in ''ITALIAN LIBERTY. Il sogno europeo della grande bellezza'', a cura di Andrea Speziali, CartaCanta, 2015, pp 63–65 {{Authority control Art Nouveau architecture in Milan

Castiglioni Castiglioni is an Italian surname. People with this surname include: * Giannino Castiglioni (1884–1971), Italian artist * Achille Castiglioni (1918–2002), Italian architect and industrial designer * Livio Castiglioni (1911–1979), Italian arc ...

Houses completed in 1903 1903 establishments in Italy Art Nouveau houses Tourist attractions in Milan