Visiting & Discovering the Milan of Stendhal

 

Milan, a city of great charm with a very eclectic and multifaceted profile has remarkable ties with one of the greatest characters of the 19th century French romances and principal exponent of realism, Henri Beyle, better known as Stendhal.

That illustrious writer took this stage name from the German town of Stendal, center of Saxony that gave birth to Johann Joachim Winckelmann, a famous historian and art critic admired by that character, talented, imaginative and with an above-average literary acumen, born on January 23, 1783 in Grenoble.

The main city of Lombardy welcomed for a long time this literature genius, sublime in the forms and descriptions of scenes and events, perceptive in obtaining the correct philosophical vein during the writing of his works and with a superfine intelligence in understanding the tastes and what the reader wants.

Stendhal is undoubtedly placed in the Olympus of the great 19th-century French writers next to luminaries of the pen such as Balzac, Flaubert, Maupassant, Dumas and Hugo, an artist who probably, or rather certainly, despite being a declared patriot, felt more connected to his beloved Milan than to Paris, the city where he spent some years of his life constantly enveloped by his almost "fanatical" admiration for the Lombard city.

The visit to discover Stendhal's places in Milan can start in Via Fatebenefratelli, a strategic artery of the Milanese urban heart a short distance from Porta Venezia, one of the historic entrances to the historic Milanese center located next to the famous Via Senato and the legendary "Quadrilatero della Moda" the top fashion area of Milan.

Stendhal discovered Milan in June 1800 as a soldier enlisted in the Army of Napoleon Bonaparte. After that he stayed in the city of Lombardy for about two years in his first stop, residing at Palazzo Borromeo d'Adda,.

This 18th century building with refined black-and-classical lines stands on the elegant Via Manzoni at number 49/51, rebuilt in its layout by the architect of Valganna Gerolamo Arganini, a work commissioned starting in 1820 by the Marquis Febo D' Adda.

During his stay, Stendhal was enchanted by the architectural profile of this building, he described it in detail in his chronicles, love at first sight for an architecture that aroused admiration in him, with those special lines and symmetrical windows placed in a wide, long, bright façade.

In a comfortable walk of about ten minutes along the famous Via Palestro is the second Milanese residence of the iconic French man of letters, Palazzo Bovara, located in Corso Venezia at number 51.

This elegant building developed on three floors differs from the traditional baroque matrix of the school of the architect Piermanrini in great vogue in Milan in the late 18th century.

The façade resembles a sort of reproduction inspired by the treatise of the 1500s with strong French architectural influences , boasting a large and airy courtyard with porticoes, a residence that was owned by Count Giovanni Bovara, illustrious Professor at the University of Pavia and Minister of Cults.

Here too, Stendhal, during his stay, probably had love at first sight, finding in that palace architectural similarities that reminded him the mother country, but in a "non-French" city that the writer was loving more and more day by day.

Stendhal returned to France after that two-year period of "Milanese love" but the distance, nostalgia and desire to return to "his Milan" as he often called it became a reality on the occasion of the period corresponding to the famous Restoration, which returned for a few months in 1814 and then on a permanent basis from 1816 to 1821.

In those five years, the writer from Grenoble became part of the circle of the Milanese romantic intellectual movements, also meeting a woman named Metilde Viscontini, former wife of Jan Demboski, General of the Polish army, love at first sight but never requited by the Lady.

Continuation then in the area of Porta Nuova reachable through the famous Via Solferino which corresponds to the 19th century Milanese entrance called Porta Argentea in Roman times.

This work of urban architecture was developed in the Napoleonic period thanks to  the architect Zanoia, who in 1813 was the protagonist of the construction of a gate with a triumphal arch and toll booths,where Stendhal often loved to stop to see the carriages of the nobles stop and even described as a detail part of the scene, the smell of manure generated by the horses.

From there you can continue towards Porta Venezia known as Porta Orientale or Porta Rensa as Stendhal and the Milanese called it located next to Via San Damiano and Via Senato.

These two arteries of great charm are not far from the famous Piazza San Babila and near the noble Palazzo Serbelloni, Palazzo Rocca Saporiti and one of the Milanese Renaissance gems, Casa Fontana Silvestri.

It was customary for Stendhal to walk in that area that gave him that usual verve and enthusiasm transported into literature with his romantic writings that fascinated, conquered critics, audiences and millions of readers.

The writer was enchanted by those Milanese palaces that he described as the best in Europe with the most attractive courtyards.

The streets of Milan were very comfortable for him even during rainy days when you could easily find shelter under a roof sheltered from the weather with metal gutters on a corner not disturbing the stop.

From there, in a short walk, you can reach the emblematic Duomo, the Milan Cathedral which was another place so dear to Stendhal.

The writer was enraptured by the white marble and the Gothic architectural projections soaring upwards reaching the blue sky, an image he considered unique in the world.

Stendhal lived in a 19th century Milan that was exalted in literary circles, a forge of political ferment and very active cultural life, even these details were fundamental for the love that this illustrious character took as a dowry those themes, assimilating them, appreciating and loving them, sometimes criticizing them but becoming a Milanese in his own way.

Buried in  the Parisian cemetery of Montmartre, the tombstone shows an epigraph with the inscription: "Arrigo Beyle/ Milanese / wrote / loved / lived, words that undoubtedly say it all.

Subsequently crossing the majestic and elegant Galleria Vittorio Emanuele you will reach the emblematic Piazza della Scala where on the left side stands the homonymous theater that Stendhal described as the first theater in the world for the music that was produced and for a deep theme linked to light, which only illuminated the scene, a detail so loved by the French writer.

The visit ends here after seeing historical places of a Milan that was able to fascinate an iconic, charismatic and unique character of the 19th century who entered into total symbiosis with the second Italian metropolis.

Link : https://www.yesmilano.it/en