Thursday 28 March 2024

automatic translation

Thursday 28 March 2024

automatic translation

    Castello Sforzesco: a hub full of history for The Italian Glass Weeks

    Nine days separate us from the opening day of TheItalian Glass Weeks, the main European event, included in the official program of 2022 United Nations International Year of Glass, which Italy dedicates to artistic, industrial and design glass. The event, staged from 10 to 25 September in the symbol cities of Milan and Venice, is made up of a wide range of events related to the world of glass, organized by museums, foundations and institutions, but also by companies and individuals. 

    The Milanese week

    The objective of the exhibition, born from the merger of Vision Milan Glass Week and The Venice Glass Weeklies in raising the awareness of institutions, businesses and consumers about the excellence of glass and Made in Italy on a global level.
    In particular, from 10 to 18 September, The Italian Glass Weeks will enliven the Lombard capital with a series of unmissable events. 

    The Sforzesco Castle

    One of the hubs of the Milanese week will be the Castello Sforzesco, historic monument of the city and home to museums and cultural institutes. In fact, the Castello Sforzesco will host various moments related to The Italian Glass Weekyes, including:

    • the exhibition “Milan of glass: from antiquity to contemporary”, from 7 to 25 September in the Cortile della Rocchetta;
    • six free guided tours to the artistic glass collections in the Castle museums, on 10 and 11 September;
    • workshops and visits designed for the youngest, from 13 to 18 September.

    A symbolic location

    The choice of Castello Sforzesco as the venue for important events of The Italian Glass Weeks is definitely iconic; the monument, not far from the historic centre, is in fact one of the main symbols of Milan. Its seven centuries of history make it a fascinating and significant place in relation to the city and its evolution. 

    The Visconti fortress

    Let us now try to reconstruct the centuries-old history of the Sforza Castle, now dear to the Milanese, but considered in the past as an emblem of tyranny.

    The construction of a fortification was started in the second half of the fourteenth century by the Visconti dynasty, which had held the lordship of Milan for almost a century. Galeazzo II Visconti in fact built a fortress straddling the medieval walls, incorporating the pusterla of Porta Giovia. His successor, Gian Galeazzo, added buildings for housing the salaried troops to the construction. The two parts of the structure, separated by the moat of the medieval wall, were connected by Filippo Maria, the last of the Visconti. In the same period the Castle, with a square plan of about 180 meters on each side, equipped with four towers, also square, and a large enclosure, became a residence.

    The intervention of Francesco Sforza

    In 1447, on the death of Filippo Maria, who had no male heirs, the Milanese proclaimed the Ambrosian Republic and the residence of Porta Giovia, emblem of noble power, was partially damaged. But the mercenary captain Francesco Sforza, husband of Bianca Maria Visconti, daughter of Filippo Maria, started the reconstruction in 1450 to make it his residence, after having taken control of Milan.
    Francesco Sforza, as a skilled politician, was concerned with renovating the Visconti castle, justifying the reconstruction (of a building not loved by the citizens) with the desire to embellish the city and provide it with a defense against enemies.

    An impregnable fort

    Consistent with the latter purpose, Francesco Sforza commissioned military architects and engineers to strengthen the castle. In particular, under the direction of Bartolomeo Gadio, the castle underwent significant changes: two massive round corner towers were added, with diamond-tipped serizzo cladding, more suited to withstand the artillery of the time, and the “Ghirlanda”, the curtain wall placed to defend the northern front.

    The pomp of a court

    To continue with the work was the eldest son of Francesco Sforza: Galeazzo Maria, who moved into the Castle with his wife Bona di Savoia and his court. In a few years the Rocchetta and the Ducal Court were completed, the rooms were frescoed and the Ducal Chapel was built and decorated.
    In 1477, under the regency of Bona di Savoia, the central tower was built, which still bears his name today.
    Two years later Ludovico Maria, known as il Moro, brother of Galeazzo Maria, took over power. A cultured and lover of the arts, Il Moro made the Castello Sforzesco one of the most sumptuous courts in Europe, entrusting the decoration of some rooms to artists of the caliber of Bramante and Leonardo.

    The Sforzesco Castle in foreign hands

    Fallen under French rule at the end of the 1521th century, the Duchy of Milan was disputed, in just thirty years, by the French, the Germanic Emperor and Sforza. These were complex years for the city and its Castle, with the collapse of the Torre del Filarete in 1536. In XNUMX the building was sold to the King of Spain Charles V and lost its role as a stately home, which passed to the Ducal Palace, becoming seat of the new citadel, occupied by the Iberian troops.
    Don Ferrante Gonzaga, lieutenant of the Emperor, from 1549 promoted an avant-garde defense work, which protected the Castle with a twelve-pointed star fortification.  

    The sad Austrian season

    In 1706 the dominion of the city passed to the Habsburgs of Austria. For the Sforza environments it was a period of decay: the rooms suffered numerous damages and the vaults, frescoes and stucco decorations deteriorate. The only evidence of the Habsburg rule in the Castle is the snowy statue of St. John of Nepomuk, the Bohemian saint protector of the Austrian armies.

    The French parenthesis

    After a first rejected attempt, made by a group of pro-French Milanese, in June 1796 the Castle was in French hands. Already in that year, a first popular petition asked for the building to be demolished, intended as a symbol of ancient tyranny. With a decree of 1800 Napoleon ordered its total demolition, undertaken in 1801, with the demolition of the starry citadel. The emptiness it generated favored the development of a project with neoclassical forms, endowed with an immense semicircular square, the Foro Bonaparte. The works were interrupted immediately and in 1815, with the Lombard-Veneto Kingdom, the Austrians returned to Milan. 

    Symbolic place of the Five Days

    During the Cinque Giornate (18-22 March 1848) the Castle was a prison for the Milanese arrested by the Austrians and a place from which Radetzky had the city bombed. Having returned to the city for four months, the Milanese then lowered the round towers, while in 1859 the Austrian domination definitively ended. The Castle was attacked and plundered by the Milanese, who took weapons, furnishings and money, destined for the troops.

    The restorations of the second half of the twentieth century

    After a long and heated debate about the fate of the Castle, the historical culture prevailed and, with it, the position of the architect Luca Beltrami, who subjected the building to a widespread restoration, aimed at recovering the shape desired by the Sforza lordship. The renovation ended in 1905, with the inauguration of the Filarete Tower. In the old parade ground, hundreds of trees were also planted to create the new green lung of the city, Parco Sempione; while the Foro Bonaparte was built for residential purposes before the castle.
    During the twentieth century, the Castello Sforzesco was damaged and then renovated after the Second World War. In the 60s, a large fountain was built in Piazza Castello, inspired by the one removed in the XNUMXs, during the construction of the first underground line.

    An authoritative synecdoche

    Such a prestigious history and present cannot but welcome with due relevance a strategic material for a sustainable and secure future, promoted by a circular economy.
    But the Castello Sforzesco is also the ideal location to exhibit another side of glass: the centuries-old tradition that gives credit and splendor to the experiments of Made in Italy. A powerful synecdoche will thus be created between Castello Sforzesco and glassmaking, the daughter of the all-Italian charm for an art that feeds different 'worlds' and sectors. 

    Stay updated on the events of The Italian week in Milan Glass Weeks, by clicking here!

    Sources: milanocastello.it, wikipedia

    You may also be interested in: TheItalian Glass Weeks is approaching, browse the press release
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