Palazzo Serbelloni: history and high society

Designed by architect Simone Cantoni for the Grand Duke Gabrio, Palazzo Serbelloni was one of the first stately homes to be built on Corso Venezia (known as Porta Orientale at that time), an elegant carriageway built in Milan in the 18th and 19th centuries. It was handed down over thirteen generations through the Serbelloni family, to the Marquises Busca Arconati Visconti and the Counts Sola Cabiati, the Gola and Lalatta families until it came to its current owners.

Completed in 1794, the palace became a key location for political events in the duchy right away, due to its imposing size and studied monumentality and to the sense of international scope and openness to the world which the Serbellonis themselves decided to give the building. Over the centuries Napoleon Bonaparte, Mozart, Metternich, Radetzky, Napoleon III and Vittorio Emanuele II have all had occasion to appreciate the palace’s classical perfection.

Home to the Circolo della Stampa, the Press Circle, for more than fifty years, inaugurated before the head of state at the time, Luigi Einaudi, Palazzo Serbelloni was restored to its original civic role in 2011 when the main floor was renovated and entrusted to the Foundation named after the building. “Reopening this space to host great personalities and great ideas once again,” as the Foundation’s President Emilio Gola likes to say.

Combining culture, art, design and fashion in a space with roots that go a long way back in history: this is the challenge the Serbelloni Foundation accepted, beginning by restoring the five halls on the main floor (also referred to as Napoleon’s Floor) for new uses, fitting them all with the logistics and technical installations required to host today’s events, in line with building codes but without altering the particular artistic features of the monumental building. [to be continued]

Published on Claudia Chiari's Blog