The Royal Palace of Milan (Italian: Palazzo Reale di Milano) was the seat of government of the Italian city of Milan for many centuries, but today is an important cultural centre, home to expositions and exhibitions.
Originally designed with a system of two yards, then partially demolished to make way for the Duomo, the palace is located to the right of the facade of the cathedral in the opposite position with respect to Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. The facade of the building, following the line of the ancient courtyard, forming a recess with respect to Piazza del Duomo, known as the Piazzetta Reale (English: Small Royal square).
Of particular importance is to remember the Hall of Caryatids on the first floor of the building, which occupies the site of the old theatre burned in 1776 and is the only environment survived the heavy bombing of the 1943 when he lost the neoclassical interiors.
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Double wire bound with the History of the city, the royal palace has ancient origins. Born with the name of 'Palazzo Vecchio Broletto' and is the seat of city government during the period of Commons in the Middle Ages.
The palace became the political centre during the ladies of the families Torriani, Visconti and effort, where after the construction of the Cathedral, was an important renovation, under the government of Francesco Sforza.
Between the late 15th and early 16th century, with the fall of the government efforts and the French invasion, the Castello Sforzesco, which until then had received the official residence of the Dukes of Milan had become increasingly weapons more suited to a fortress than a pleasant building representation. It was under French rule of Louis XII before and François I, which proceeded to move the seat of the court by the current Royal Palace.
It will however only with the Spanish period that we see a full flowering of the whole work, thanks to the arrival in town the Governor Ferrante Gonzaga which takes permanent residence in the city from 1546, raising the ducal court a veritable palace of the governor's residence in Milan. Gonzaga will be the first to inaugurate the work to achieve the boardrooms of the complex, restoring the body also place the building between the courtyard and the garden entrusted to the work of Domenico Giunti. The hotel welcomes in a first step the other representative bodies in the country that are received in the two side arms of the structure giving the Senate housing Regi citizen to the courts, the ordinary judges and to the extraordinary.
To pursue these projects, we know that the governor Gonzaga demolished the old church of Sant'Andrea al shattered wall, annexing the land area of the building, while an interior road and enclosed courtyard leading from the church of San Gottardo that will increasingly function as Palatine Chapel.
New renovations of the building came down at the end of the 16th century with the arrival of Governor Antonio de Guzman y Zuniga, Marquis of Ayamonte, which is able to recruit Pellegrino Tibaldi, the architect of confidence of the archbishop Charles Borromeo, already engaged in the work of the Duomo in the archbishop's palace and the courtyard of the royalties. Tibaldi worked on the construction of the building from 1573 in 1598 and were in these years which completely rebuilt the pictorial decoration of the apartments noble porticos, of the private chapel and the church of San Gottardo. Collaborate in this undertaking the greatest artists of the time: Aurelio Luini, Ambrose Figino, Antonio Fields and of course the same Pellegrino Tibaldi, while other works were stucco and grotesque built by Valerio Profondavalle, a Flemish artist-impresario who had also produced some windows for the Duomo of Milan.
This was the era when it was also created the first Court Theater, now in theatres including the Archbishop, the beginning of a long process that will end only in the 18th century with the final construction of La Scala.
The 17th century will be a substantial stall for the yard of the Palazzo Reale and indeed the structure will damage not just because of the wars and the plague. On the night of 24 and 25 January 1695 that will be destroyed in a fire, the Court Theatre, which will mark the interruption of theatrical institution in Milan almost two decades.
After the War of Spanish Succession, Milan definitively passed to the Austrians that in 1717 sent you the first governor, the Count of Loewenstein that since April 26 of that year started work on the construction of a new ducal theater, bigger and harmonious than its predecessor, with four tiers of boxes and a gallery, all prepared with the typical pattern with a horseshoe pit. The project was entrusted to Francesco Galli Bibbiena, which also employs his students Giandomenico Barbieri and Domenico Valmagini for its development. The structure was completed on 26 December 1717 and was inaugurated with the work of F. Gasparini Constantine. Next to this theatre in the Palace are redoubts dedicated to gambling, the sale of sweets and soft drinks as well as masks and costumes for the holiday gala.
A new fire hit the building in 1723 and this time it looks disastrous, especially for ceremonial halls. It will be the Governor Wirich Philipp von Daun to inaugurate the new renovations so trying to make more decent the palace, the courtyard of paint to remove the sombre aspect prison had assumed that the structure in the 17th century painting the walls white and framed the windows with jambs barocchetto designed by Charles Rinaldi. The church of San Gottardo now becomes a full "Director-Ducal Chapel", getting new internal ridipitture accompanied by the addition of stucco and gilding.
At this time inside the courtyard were the Office of the Chancellor, the ordinary and the extraordinary Magistrate, the Magistrate of Health, National Coin, the offices of the Contadora Veedoria General and Main, in addition to 'Offizio the Half Year. All these offices, although they had purely administrative tasks, managed without the revenue and expenditure of the State and resolving disputes through the courts within the boundaries of the duchy. The state government was instead placed in the new rooms built on the north side of the garden where he met the Privy Council chaired by the governor, even if that institution had severely limited the power of the will of real government residing in Vienna.
In this same period, the main floor are restored the Hall of feasting and the Audience (which now takes the name of the Hall of Emperors). The governor and the governor staying in the new rooms overlooking the northern and southern sides of the Garden. In the apartments of representation, in 1739, is also housed Maria Theresa of Austria in his visit to the duchy of Milan.
In 1745 arrives in Milan Gian Luca Pallavicini as governor and minister plenipotentiary of Milan. The Pallavicini was concerned first of risitemazione interior of the palace, leaving room that was completely renovated in its spending, focusing on both the furniture that sull'oggettistica small as porcelain, silver chandeliers.
At the same time the new rooms were restored around the garden thanks to the architect Francis Cross (famous for its time and already active in the factory of the Duomo in Milan, in the cupola of the Madonna), the system in which some of these rooms new tapestries Raphael Manufacturing Goblin specially ordered for the palace.
The most significant change was made with the union in the Hall of the Emperors with that Festini resulting in a huge ballroom 46 feet long by 17 wide (now Hall of Caryatids), incorporating the shorter sides of the boxes room for orchestras.
Another model of the Pallavicini introduction to the court in Milan will be theSalle à manger,a room intended only for lunches and gala dinners, according to a French fashion at the time still unknown in Milan. The new room to be functional, was obtained by changing a room that looked out on the north side of the small courtyard of the palace, who was communicating with the underlying kitchens and therefore easy to reach from food. In 1752, anyway, before leaving Milan, Pallavicini managed to sell most of the Royal House of the furniture she had brought to the palace, and as such they became state property.
In the second half of the 18th, under the rule of Austria, the Royal Palace is a place of lavish court life and sees imporanti artists and architects working on transformations inspired by the Baroque teresa.
A first project of restoration of the building was laid by Emperor Joseph II already during his visit to Milan on 26 June 1769 on which had initially thought of using even the architect Luigi Vanvitelli to implement the project but perhaps also because of lack of funds needed to complete the work, the building was left unchanged.
Ferdinand of Habsburg-Lorraine, a son of Maria Theresa, 15 October 1771, married in the cathedral of Milan Maria Beatrice d'Este, who became the new governor of the Ontario in Austria, with duty then to take permanent residence in the Palazzo Reale. Probably influenced by the desire to compete with the large houses in Europe (first of all that of his brother at Schönbrunn). The initial idea of Ferdinand was to build a new royal palace where he resides, leaving the old building to accommodate offices of government that were widening. With this in mind, he moved with his wife Palazzo Clerici pending the approval of a compromise: the old building was then refurbished to finally have something worthy of reception of the Archduke and many offices would be transferred elsewhere to make way for the court. Meanwhile, in 1771 take place at Palazzo Reale some holiday for the wedding of Archduke Ferdinand including the recitation ofThe Insubria comfortedby Maria Teresa Agnesi and the staging 'sAscanio in Albaby Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, which is also engaged in first as the Master of the Court in Milan, only to be rejected by the Empress Maria Theresa, who will send a letter to his son.
The work officially began in 1773 under the direction of Giuseppe Piermarini, supported by Leopold Pollack sent from Vienna to control costs and to become the pupil. The first act of the new architect will be to immediately lift the side of the courtyard to the Cathedral, with the other three, creating the so-called Royal Piazetta, then the largest square of the Cathedral. Actually this was one of the solutions proposed restructuring by Nicholas Pacassi, the real architect of the Viennese court. The renovation of the building was indeed very troubled and Piermarini had to balance the demands of style and especially the economy of Maria Theresa of Austria and his architect with the needs and expectations of future residents: the prince and wife who refused to leave the palace Clerici if the restructuring did not take account of their desires. Externally, Piermarini gave a sober and austere character of the building, detached from the Baroque and inaugurated on neoclassical in Milan. In front, the medieval walls are properly into the openings, plastered and divided by stone pilasters, remain the three original plans (Vienna wanted to spend as little as possible). The centre of the body of honour, slightly protruding, is reinforced by entering four large semi and a triple portal surmounted by a balcony. Wreath was also laid on a great central crest and a series of statues and trophies (never realized). Striking the pavement of the new square built at the "authorized" and patterns of granite with a beautiful diamond pattern.
In full swing of work, the night of 26 February 1776, burned again the Court Theatre. It was decided to remove the theatre (always a fire risk) and within two years was built the famous Teatro Alla Scala in a different area of the city, which became one of, if not the first public opera house in the world. The space of the building formerly occupied by the ducal theater was used for the reception of new shows to represent and extend westward to the Garden. A theater of the court, however, we wanted to, so we demolished the nearby schools Cannobiana and, again designed by Piermarini, we build the theatre Cannobiana that had facade on Via Larga (the rising of the current Tear Lyric).
Even within the building undergoes many transformations, leading to a local distribution remained almost unchanged until later today. The largest-scale enterprise is undoubtedly represented by the famous Hall of Caryatids. Is simultaneously restored the ducal chapel of St. Gotthard getting a new altar and decoration inerna neoclassical style. It is saved only the bell tower, considered a model of architectural beauty of the idea of the time of Azzone Visconti.
Archduke of both new orders to buy more Gobelin tapestries with the stories of Jason and those of Raphael Pallavicini. Internally the rooms are decorated in stucco by 'Albertolli, painted by Julian Traballesi and Martin Knoller, a cycle of works that will end only in the 19th century due to the intervention of Andrea Appiani before and Francesco Hayez then.
The work of building a Piermarini officially ends on 17 June 1778, when the Archduke Ferdinand Palazzo Clerici leave to go to live in the new Palazzo Reale.
In 1796 Napoleon Bonaparte, more generally, comes to Milan conquered and annexed it in spirit to France with the formation of the Cisalpine Republic. The Regio-Ducal Palace, therefore, called the National Palace and became the seat of the main governing bodies of the new republic, namely the military command, first and then the Directory.
When the Austro-Russians to regain control of Milan in 1799, the French government will be forced to hastily sell most of the furnishings of the building at auction as well as allowing the looting of other halls of the population.
It will only be in 1805 that the building will again rise, inter alia, reaching its peak of splendor. It would indeed be in the same year that Milan will become the capital of the newborn Kingdom of Italy consisting of Napoleon's adopted son Eugène de Beauharnais who was appointed Viceroy and take residence right in Milan's Palazzo Reale. Milan is the capital of a vast kingdom that includes all of northern Italy and as such also the home of the new government needs to be worthy of this privilege.
It is therefore repair damage caused by war and purchase new furnishings and lavish the same Eugène de Beauharnais about enlargement of the building at the rear thanks to a project entrusted to Luigi Canonica, which adds to the entire block now occupied by the council offices where they are fitted to the new stables, a large riding school and many local offices, all in austere neo-classical style (the project was completed years later by Tazzini that was also the author of the facade on Via Larga) from handling, known as "The Lady Knight" and the place of horse shows, was entered through a bridge on the court theater Restrelli (theatre Cannobiana) to Andrea Appiani was given the completion of the frescoes in the halls of representation that will be opened l '8 May 1805 during an official visit to Napoleon at Milan.
With the fall of Napoleon in 1814, the kingdom of Italy in Milan toppled the huge palace begins a slight loss of importance, immediately recovered with the restoration. Under the Austrians, was formed on Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia and as such the Palazzo Reale in Milan will serve as the seat of the new viceroy of a wide realm. Adelaide, Queen of Sardinia was born here in 1822.
With the annexation of Lombardy to Piedmont domains in 1859, the palace became the seat of the new governorship of the city of Milan, led by Massimo d'Azeglio who start up the 13 February 1860 to leave his post later that year. With the proclamation of the kingdom of Italy in the 1861, the palace became the property directly from the Savoy family, but they tended to stay there very little since Milan was no longer the capital of a kingdom. Umberto I, resided mainly in the Villa Reale di Monza and how this little trodden ground of Milan and after his assassination in 1900 the son Vittorio Emanuele III will tend to stay away from hot environments Milan. The last official receipt dates back to 1906 for the Universal Exhibition.
In 1919 the last official visit to the palace was that of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, who was welcomed in Milan by Victor Emmanuel III of Savoy. On October 11 of that same year, the palace was sold by the House of Savoy to the Italian state, however, on the condition that the apartments remain available to the royal family.
With the sale to the public land Averre the second massacre at the palace Piermarini. The first was the case in the creation of the new Piazza del Duomo, when it shortened the sleeves east of the palace is spoiling the proportions of the palace square. Second havoc, aveviene neglianni '30, when is shortened by at least another 60 metres, the so-called "long sleeves" to build the Arengario. This has definitely ruined beauty of the building, linked largely to the proportional relationships between the bodies. Same goes for the square. Other destruction of the 1925 include when they demolished the bodies of the Canon and Tazzini to build the municipal offices.
The whole building was heavily damaged during the night of 15 August 1943 when the city was hit by a bombardment English against the Nazi occupiers. In fact the bombs were not directly hit the building, but it was destroyed by fire unleashed in neighbouring buildings that erode the attic of the Hall of Cariatidi, burning the wood warping and causing the collapse of large trusses that in their fall overwhelm the time, the balcony and split in several places and the floor. The high temperature in the room overheated unleashed stucco and turned the color and the constituent material, permanently ruining the famous hall, including Appiani paintings that were kept.
Will be after the war in 1947 that the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage will give the start to the work of recovery of the building and specifically the Hall of Caryatids. It is thus achieved a new flooring and a new roof of the hall floor, without the reconstruction of earlier decorations (of which, however, has ample documentation) in the choice of leaving a testimony of the war in Milan.
The room repurchases great reputation from 1953 when, in a show of Picasso in Milan, the Catalan artist chooses it as the venue to welcome his work, Guernica, with a clear symbolic purpose.
Only from 2000, moreover, the room has regained the actual former glory with a very careful restoration that has removed the blackening on the walls caused by the fire of the 1943 and ordered consolidating all surfaces (structural and painting). On the cover of the ceiling, previously white, have been reported to drawing sketches of how the ceiling of the room had to appear before the collapse.
Only at the beginning of 21st century, more than fifty years by the destruction of war, the Royal Palace is finding a central role in social and cultural life of Milan.
Although still under the third stage of restoration, which will return the entire building to its former glory, the first two batches are completed, allowing visitors the chance to admire the halls of the Palace Museum in therearrangedwith an itinerary through the four seasons of the historic Palazzo: the era Teresiana and Neoclassical, the Napoleonic era, the Restoration and l 'Unification of Italy.
The restoration took place through a complex task of reconstruction of the original furniture to allow a wider and more articulate historical and stylistic reading of court life. The first visible halls belonging to the neoclassical period, ranging from reconstruction of Piermarini to Napoleonic times, are those that best explain the splendor of an era "enlightened" in which the city had a major role in Europe.
The third phase of restoration still in progress will return to the museum rooms of the old apartmentreserve, in which they are documented and maintained the royal ways of living of the 19th century.
The Royal Palace is a cultural centre in the heart of the city coordinated with three other exhibition venues: the Rotonda della Besana, the Palazzo Region and Palazzo dell'Arengario.
The building played an important role with regard to art in Milan, as shown by the great success of the exhibition of recent years that have included Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso and other painters and sculptors. Fundamental is the exhibition opened at the Palazzo Reale in 2009 on the centenary of the birth of Futurism.
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