Casa Galimberti: a wonderful liberty style building
Via Malpighi 3
With a short walk from Hotel City, you can reach the lively Porta Venezia district, renowned for its bars, cafes and some famous examples of Milanese liberty style.
In Via Malpighi 3, Casa Galimberti is an unmissable stop for those who want to have an evocative look of the architectural style that was the flagship of the Milanese bourgeoisie in the early decades of the twentieth century. With its naturalistic and zoomorphic decorations, soft and vigorous lines, the Liberty style embodied the dynamism and modernity of the emerging class and offered it a clear identity in contrast with the baroque and neoclassical style typical of the aristocratic residences of nearby Corso Venezia.
Born as Art Nouveau in France, Modern Style in England, Jungenstile in Germany, the Liberty Style in Italy looked to nature as the source of every creative, vital and dynamic act, trying to reproduce its shapes and movements. Hence some of the typical elements of Italian Art Nouveau are: sinuous lines, floral and zoomorphic motifs, balconies with wrought iron or decorative concrete scrolls, facade decorations with ceramic tiles, combination of different architectural elements. Everything had to evoke that sense of nature, freshness, novelty, freedom that the first artists, led by Edmond Picard, wanted to convey.
Did the architect Giovanni Battista Bossi succeed in this aim with the construction of the Galimberti House inaugurated in Milan in 1905?
Let yourself be enchanted by the luxuriant decorations of the facade, by the festive colors of the clothes, by the sinuous figures that frame the windows, perhaps while savoring a verse by Gabriele D'Annunzio ("The aura moves the flowing tunic that bustles in numerous, like foams on the sea where the olive tree smiles without seeing it ..."). Finally, let yourself be carried away by the lively and retro atmosphere of the Liberty district of Milan, just a few minutes from Hotel City.
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