This building of Palazzina Appiani has been entrusted to FAI on a loan-for-use basis by Milan City Council. It was designed as an official gallery for Napoleon public appearances.
It is part of the project to celebrate with the architecture the magnificence of Napoleonic power: changing an extensive area around the Sforza Castle into a great place-of-arms, complete with its own triumphal arch – the Arch of Peace – and an arena for public spectacles, designed in 1805 by Luigi Canonica on the model of the ancient Roman circuses. A loggia was designed, featuring monumental classical forms and facing out onto the amphitheatre. It was contained within a building characterised by simple, compact lines, with a colonnaded, Neoclassical facade overlooking the park.
Internally, the hall of honour (salone d’onore) is embellished by marble and crystal, and plays host to a continuous frieze that evokes the triumphal processions depicted in the bas-reliefs of Imperial Rome, painted in the style of the Neoclassical painter Andrea Appiani, from whom the Palazzina takes its name.
FAI - Fondo Ambiente Italiano
Via Carlo Foldi 2 - 20135 Milano
Phone: +39 02 46 76 15 393
Email: m.pizzorni@fondoambiente.it
