Cimitero Monumentale - right side corridor
The origins of the "Monumentale" as a place of burial go back to 1838 when the Municipality of Milan held a public competition to select a project for a new cemetery in order to group together various graveyards situated in six peripheral areas. Motivated by the need to predispose a decorous area, with what were for that time modern equipment and facilities, to hold funerals when necessary and provide a dignified memorial setting for individual mourners and expressions of collective grief. It was considered a precise duty towards the whole town and at the same time the new cemetery had to satisfy the official requirements of a city which under Austrian domination had been raised to the height of "Regno Lombardo Veneto" the Kingdom of Lombardy and Venice Region. It was, however, only after the defeat of the Austrians and independence that the plan could become reality. In 1860 the new Municipality put the project out to tender once again. Three years later Architect Carlo Maciachini's design was formally chosen.His proposal met with approval because of the particular planimetry which grouped together the principal architectural structures at the front of the complex arranging them in a large square or "court of honour" similar to the entrances of royal palaces constructed facing the city. In the centre of its wide, banded front prospect is the Famedio on a central plan which can be considered a "pantheon" where the most eminent and well-deserving citizens are laid to rest. Luminaries as Alessandro Manzoni and Carlo Cattaneo are buried here.
Two imposing wings of the complex stretch out from the central Famadeo building. At ground level they are partially porticoed while the second tier is completely colonnaded creating a filter in the direction of the main area of the cemetery without impeding the view and perception of the background.
The decision to create upper galleries with a series of arches through which the rich variety of monumental sculptures to be found in the sectors lying behind are visible is impressive. The project included the creation of an imposing tree lined avenue (via Ceresio) on the same axis level as the curvilinear piazza opposite. Carlo Maciachini carried out the realization of the new burial ground for the emergent (originally covering121,000 sq.m and around 250,000 sq.m at the present day) is in tune with secular philosophy and necessity. It is deliberately non-denominational and offers a resting place for non-Catholics and the Jewish community. The "Monumentale" is organized around an orthogonal intersection crossed by two main aisles with numerous secondary corridors and a series of burial plots running lengthways and widthways.
The varied choice of construction materials, (stone and marble originating from every part of Italy were utilized), meant that it was an exemplary work of its kind at that time. According to the first edition of the Italian Touring Club "Guida d'Italia" in 1914 the structure is an evident sign of the wealth of the Milanese. Contemporary observers defined the style of the structure as "modern Lombard" with some additions inspired by medieval traditions as for example two toned marble sculptures. It is an eclectic mixture as echoes of mock-Lombard Romanesque, Neo-Gothic, traces of Byzantine style and a touch of Pisan-Gothic can be found, reconciling hints of different styles and periods. Internally tombs, monuments and aedicules offer a significant overview of Italian art from the period. The various tendencies of over half a century in the fields of sculpture and funerary architecture up to the present day can be identified.
Significant architectural creations found here include works by Carlo Maciachini, Luca Beltrami, Gaetano Moretti, Giuseppe Sommaruga, Emesto Pirovano, Ulisse Stacchini, Paolo Mezzanotte, Gio Ponti among other notable artists.
The cemetery was a privileged place for this concentration of talented creativity and today can be considered almost an open-air museum from the late 19th century to the present where an exceptional collection of tendencies illustrating trends of style and taste can be found.
The original monumentality was in a Neo-Classical framework evolving towards greater experimental freedom of artistic expression in the eighteen seventies with increased stylistic realism due in part to the exigency of self-representation of those granted permission to be buried there.
Various different iconographical themes can be seen: from the half-closed door, an opening leading to a mysterious passage way to the afterlife, to the depiction of secular and civil values and grieving, mournful figures offering condolence as well as other images executed in various attitudes. In the most recent decades of the twentieth ¬century works by the greatest contemporary sculptors such as Luciano Minguzzi, Francesco Messina, Giacomo Manzù, Floriano Bodini, Giò Pomodoro have been placed in the "MonumentaIe".
