Palazzo Litta, Milan

Palazzo Litta
Palazzo Litta
	Bartolomeo Arese
Design and construction
Architect(s)	Francesco Maria Richini

The Palazzo Litta, also known as the Palazzo Arese-Litta, is a Baroque structure in Milan, northern Italy, opposite San Maurizio al Monastero Maggiore, and dating from the period of Spanish rule of the city. In 2018, it served as a cultural center, housing exhibition spaces, offices, and a theater.

History

Architect

Maria Theresa of Austria, for Eugène de Beauharnais and for the arrival of Napoleon

in Milan.

Apart from its general plan, the principal features which remain essentially intact from the original seventeenth-century building are the piano nobile (although largely redecorated) and one of Richini’s courtyards. The family oratory, also the work of Richini, and consecrated in 1671, was later turned into a private theatre for the use of the family and its invitees. The theatre, the oldest in Milan, is still in use as the Teatro Litta di Milano, which also has a second performance space located in the old stable block.^[1]

In 1674 the palazzo passed to Bartolomeo’s daughter Margherita, wife of

Arese became extinct in the male line, it was inherited by the Litta family

, whose members were also prominent in the political life of the city. It was in this period that a number of important changes were made to the building. By the late 19th century, it had become the home of the Railroad Administration of Northern Italy.

Architecture

Between 1752 and 1761 Bartolomeo Bolli constructed a new façade for the building, highly decorated in a late Baroque, or

staircase (a scalone a tenaglia) whose sophisticated curves lead to the apartments of the piano nobile. These too were refurbished in part, a number being decorated with murals by Giovanni Antonio Cucchi

.

References

Specific

^ "Teatro Litta di Milano". RegioneLombardia: Direzione Generale Cultura, Identità e Autonomie della Lombardia. Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2007-07-18.
^ Guida artistica di Milano: dintorni e laghi, by Tito Vespasiano Paravicini (1881), page 114.

General

Official website
Storia di Palazzo Litta (in Italian), Direzione Regionale per i Beni Culturali e Paessagistici della Lombardia
History of Palazzo Litta (in English), a shorter version of the same page
Macadam, Alta (1997). Blue Guide. Northern Italy: from the Alps to Bologna. London: A & C Black.
ISBN 0-7136-4294-7
.

[1] "Teatro Litta di Milano". RegioneLombardia: Direzione Generale Cultura, Identità e Autonomie della Lombardia. Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2007-07-18.

[2] Guida artistica di Milano: dintorni e laghi, by Tito Vespasiano Paravicini (1881), page 114.

[1]