Martesana - Gorla | Little Paris of Milan

 

Milan has two metropolitan areas that generally do not enter within the usual great tourist itineraries that touch the monumental part of the major Lombard center, namely the Martesana with its small Naviglio familiarly called in Milanese "Navilett", a place that has maintained in its own way the charm of the "Old Milan" unknown to many today.
 

The second is Gorla located on the same canal enlivened by beautiful flowered gardens and a suggestive athmosphere also linked to literature of relevance as it was mentioned in "The Betrothed" masterpiece by Alessandro Manzoni and this milanese attractive area took the nickname of "Little Paris" for many details in common with some Parisian areas. 

Once you reach the Martesana, in the north-east area of Milan, starting along the local piccolo naviglio  canal, a name that derives from the countryside already known in the period of Duke Francesco Sforza, a territory that still includes various municipalities of Brianza. 

The "Navilett" as is named in Milanese dialect was born in medieval times at the behest of the Visconti Duchy who in 1460 with Filippo Maria Visconti at its head decided to develop this canal to which works by Leonardo da Vinci  are also attributed when the Tuscan genius lived in Milan at the court of Ludovico il Moro.  

Subsequently, the small canal was used as a trade route for the boats that reached the city by river connected to the Adda river and receiving the waters from the Seveso south of the well-known Villoresi Canal, transporting essences and herbs that were treated by the first small laboratories and distilleries dedicated to the perfumery sector. 

In modern times the Piccolo Naviglio is not navigable, its length is almost 39.0 kilometers, many of which flow in the meanders or in an underground section where it takes the name of Naviglio di San Marco, also forming a small lake and called Cavo Redefossi near the Bastions of Porta Nuova then flowing into  the Lambro in the locality  of Melegnano. 

Its maximum width is 18.0 meters at its highest point with a shallow maximum depthof 1.0 meters.  

On this canal sailed various, famous personalities, namely St. Charles Borromeo, Maria Anna of Habsburg, Gabrio Serbelloni, Archduke Fernando II and again Giuseppe Parini, Alessandro Manzoni and Cesare Beccaria. 

Once there looking around you will find various similarities with the Parisian area of the Canal Saint-Martin that connects the basin de la Villette and the Canal de l'Ourck or in something the area passing through the Boulevard Richard – Lenoir all well known places situated in Paris. 

You can then move on to the Milanese district of Gorla which was an independent municipality for centuries until 1923 when with Precotto was integrated into the administrative and territorial orders of Milan.  

Developed around the current Viale Monza, crossed by the Piccolo Naviglio where various nineteenth-century patrician villas were built on the banks including Villa Angelica which had a turret and a dock, demolished at the turn of the 40s and 60s, Villa Singer, a beautiful Art Nouveau building then used for workshops devoted to the manufacture of perfumes and the complex of Villa di Delizia,. 

These charming buildings with flowery banks and a very characteristic atmosphere with small well-kept gardens, the characteristic old bridge over the small Naviglio, some vivid colors of houses on the banks gave Gorla the nickname of "Little Paris"  many years ago. 

The beautiful Villa Finzi Park located in a side street of Viale Monza, adds that Parisian accent to Gorla something in common with the Mouzaia district,something with the area around Bouttes-Chaumont both parisian areas, it was originally a large garden with a villa occupied in the nineteenth century by a Hussar Officer, the Hungarian Count Batthyàny with the construction of two temples, one called The Temple of the Night and the other the Temple of Innocence.  

Since 1934 this space has become  a Public Park, embellished with numerous tall trees such as horse chestnuts, locust trees, poplars, lime trees, beeches, oaks, Gingko biloba and maples. 

Also of interest are the Monastery of poor Clarisses by the well-known Milanese architect Giovanni Muzio, a pioneer in Italy of the twentieth-century artistic movement, a sort of simplified neoclassicism, a figure who built the Catholic University, the Triennale and the Ca' Brutta, all works carried out in Milan. 

You will then see the monument dedicated to the Little Martyrs represented by a sculpture by Remo Brioschi created in honor of those 184 children who perished on October 20, 1944 with 19 adults due to a mistake of a US Fighter Bomber that was supposed to hit some industrial complexes but it was the Gorla school that paid the price. 

 Along the course of the "Navilett" you can conclude the visit by stopping at a farmhouse called in dialect the "Cassina de' Pomm" or the Cascina delle mele which was the protagonist in the great work of Alessandro Manzoni, the "Promessi Sposi" starring Renzo Tramaglino, Lucia Mondella's boyfriend who has just arrived in Milan from Brianza saw this construction. 

This visit in this areas of Milan is very interesting, it makes you discover an area of this unusual but equally fascinating Italian metropolis, a "little Paris" in Milan and the similarities are many and for sure you will be delighted. 

 Link https://www.yesmilano.it/en