Quartiere Varesina is a small district, quartiere, of Milan, located in the suburban north-west part of the city. It belongs on the Zone 8 administrative division of the city.
Its name derived from Strada della Varesina, meaning Road for Varese, the pre-alpine city 50 km. at north of Milan.
Characteristics
Quartiere Varesina is a highly urbanized district located to east of Via Varesina, having Viale Espinasse as central axis that extends from Piazzale Accursio up to the Svincolo of Viale Certosa. The district does not have a definite urban plan, developed as the industrial outskirts of the city, with few green spaces created. The industrial part of the neighborhood is changing even in the 21st century..
The quarter's name is derived from an ancient road, Strada della Varesina, now less important than in the past when it was the only road from Milan towards Varese, even if, the name, Via Varesina, remained. Furthermore, Via Varesina is the demarcation of a side of the neighborhood and not its axis. The neighborhood for his difference is often indicated with the name of one of its streets, Espinasse, or with known locations or areas that are located in its vicinity, Certosa, Highway for Lakes, Viale Certosa, Musocco, Garegnano or pairs of names Varesina-Espinasse, Certosa-Musocco and so on.
A bit of numbers: Via Varesina measures 1.7 km. the stretch of Viale Certosa belonging to the district, between Piazzale Accursio and Svincolo Viale Certosa, is 1.4 km. long The border with Svincolo Viale Certosa between Viale Certosa and railway 900 m.
From the quarter you are accessing strategic areas: city center is not longer than 6 km., reachable from one big street Viale Certosa to north at Turin-Milan railway: Quarto Oggiaro, Vialba, even the Expo 2015 area is only 2 km. far highway for Lakes (Lake Como and Lake Maggiore) and Autostrada A4 (Italy) Turin - Venice ends in the district. Cimitero Maggiore di Milano is fifteen minutes of walking
History
Border to the city
Quartiere Varesina occupies part of the surface of the Musocco municipality abolished in 1923 which began from Strada della Varesina and bordered to Milan along Cagnola. The boundary of the district to the city is similar to that subdivision, despite the transformations that have occurred, indicated as Piazzale Accursio perimeter and the adjacent streets connecting to the beginning of Via Varesina.
Three new main roads
The district is delimited in the second half of the nineteenth century by Strada della Varesina and with the construction of three great ways that change the geography, clearly separating the old centers: Turin–Milan railway around 1860 Viale Certosa going from the city to Greater Cemetery of Milan at the end of 1800s the driveway to Lakes Highway, separating Garegnano's borgo from its preeminent church, Certosa di Garegnano built in 1300.
The new driveway for Lakes Highway, bisects Garegnano, leaving the Certosa di Garegnano on one side and the village of houses on the other. In fact, the old village of Garegnano, Garegnano Marcido, in the new geography then becomes part of Quartiere Varesina. This division between the two areas is even more clear with the construction of the flyover del Ghisallo in 1960.
Quartiere Varesina encompasses, at the time of the dissolution of Musocco municipality, Garegnano Marcido village, the houses along Strada della Varesina from Cagnola to the railway, the historic core around the current Piazzale Santorre of Santarosa, up to the driveway of the newly inaugurated Lakes Highway, becoming an industrial suburb of Milan.
Analysis of the area
In the development of the area between these main roads, you can find a division at the height of Piazzale Santorre di Santarosa:
the south with: Viale Carlo Espinasse, parallel street of Via Varesina, as the major axis south–north develops mainly for residential use being closer to the city center Viale Espinasse highly populated proximity to the area indicated as Cagnola reference church: Saint Marcelina and Saint Joseph, Viale Espinasse, 85 the north with features: Via Barnaba Oriani as the major axis east–west, ancient connection between Strada della Varesina and Certosa di Garegnano undergoes a predominantly industrial development being proximity to the exit from Milan Viale Espinasse uninhabited vicinity to Milano Certosa railway station reference church: Certosa di Garegnano
Via Ludovico di Breme built in the early nineteens can be considered as a dividing line between these two areas.
Center of the district
The center of the neighborhood can be considered Piazzale Santorre di Santarosa which is the junction of the district and the nearby church of Viale Espinasse, 85.
A church dedicated to Saint Marcellina and Saint Joseph, commissioned in 1958 by Cardinal Montini. It was consecrated to St. Marcellina by Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, Archbishop of Milan, December 9, 1983 and then also dedicated to St. Joseph, to which was added the suffix to the Certosa, with clear reference to the nearby Certosa di Garegnano. The square in front of it was used for parking until the end of the 1990s, when the surrounding area became a garden and a recreational point with an attached oratory, football field and locker room.
Shops cluster around Viale Espinasse, noted by a tramway, currently with 19 line. The old shops are now extinct, remain bar, call centers, real estate agencies, ethnic clubs, hairdressers, a hotel, a pharmacy, a bank and the shopping center Billa.
Prominent buildings
In Piazzale Santorre di Santarosa we find: the old seat of the municipality of Musocco, at No. 10, became in time even Casa del Fascio and now Green Cross Sempione, Il Croceverdino, aprile 2012 home the War Memorial of Musocco inaugurated in 1924 with the names of the fallen of the municipality during the First World War and restored in 2008. Few meters further at Via De Rossi, 2 there is the primary school Alfredo Cappellini.
In Viale Espinasse, corner Viale Certosa, in 1951 was built the service station Agip, designed by the architect Mario Bacciocchi, which still exists but only partially used. The structure of the station, which combines the right angle of the two boulevards, looks like a ship that rises from the road surface, giving a sense of dynamism and plasticity, a work considered to be of architectural merit.Stazione di servizio AGIP, Viale Espinasse
20th century
The history and growth of the district is related to its position as a crossroads for the North-West of the province and the region to Novara, Varese, Como and its distance from the center of Milan, about 6–7 km.
Housing
The part of the district along the axis of Viale Espinasse up to Piazzale di Santorre Santarosa is rapidly built for residential use from the 30s. The passage of the tram along the way, if on the one hand contributes to the noise, on the other gives rise to shops and stores for the visibility of the road. In the streets that intersect it, Via Marcantonio dal Re, Via Casella, Via Mola, Via Nuvolone, arise a mixture of small businesses, buildings, small houses still partly standing. Engine of development of the area is also nearby, just a few hundred meters, automobile factory Alfa Romeo at Portello which employs thousands of workers, reducing activity from the 60s onwards, until the end of the 80s. Over time, small companies in the area gradually give way to new homes, meanwhile shops and stores are anyway replaced by new businesses, such as Standa opened a shopping center, Fiat and Opel a dealership. At the end of the 90s is completely redone the road surface, uneven for years for the passage of trams.
The expansion of housing for the part of the quarter in proximity of Svincolo Viale Certosa, is later for industrial presence in its territory, and since the 60s and 70s onwards. The ancient road connecting to the Charterhouse of Garegnano, Via Barnaba Oriani, changes its appearance. The latest farms, in the half way, in the 70s and 80s are replaced from buildings of 7-9 floors with the adjacent Via Pannunzio, gradually erasing any memory of the old village Garegnano Marcido. No trace remains today of the birthplace of Barnaba Oriani and the villa of Petrarch origin. Even the gardens of Via Trapani in time disappear and only the farm house numbers 44 and 48 with the Osteria del 48 and some home degraded reminiscent of the old village. The traffic changes, the one-way between Viale Espinasse and Via Luciano from the direction toward the Certosa, has been directed to Viale Espinasse to alleviate traffic along the inhabited part.
In the 90s the shrine with the painting of The Virgin and Child of the old oratory at No. 29 was replaced with a copy, moved a few feet and placed between two concrete walls.
In 1994 in Via Perin del Vaga, Villapizzone CDA, a little football team, transferred its home in a new soccer center with stands and locker rooms.
The municipal building of Via Ludovico di Breme, 59 which in the past had been a nursing home was demolished at the end of the 90s and the space is now lying unused.
Viale Certosa, traditional access to the city and close to the Fieramilanocity, is the ideal place to be able to welcome tourists or people engaged in business. Arise at the intersection of Via Casella, Hotel Casella, 104-106, which becomes enlarged Hotel Mirage and Hotel Raffaello, 108. At 184-200 you instead build the barracks popular, local residents grow considerably. Towards the avenue of plane trees a series of windows of buildings, are largely catering facilities or service centers and at the intersection with Via Polidoro da Caravaggio, numbering 150, a Buffetti Group shop, office products.
Via Varesina still houses the living quarters with older buildings, and here time seems to stand still. Commercial spaces see bars, pizzerias and dining establishments. Post office at Via Varesina, 161-163 closes at the end of the 80s.
The district does not have green spaces: the only public flowerbed is on the side of house numbers in Piazzale Accursio. The trees in the neighborhood are only the sycamores in Viale Certosa.
Foreign immigration is relevant as in the rest of the periphery of the city, mainly concentrated in Via Varesina and Viale Certosa.
The interior of the district as a whole is a collection of buildings of businesses and homes in most recent, built after 1980, while the area around Viale Espinasse has undergone the least change.
Industry From 1930 onwards, the industrial growth raises in the neighborhood the first companies, small and medium-sized enterprises with buildings and smaller laboratories. The ability to transport goods without entering the city and easy access to the area for workers from outside or from Milan has contributed to its industrial vocation.
Even the Milano Certosa railway station was used to transport goods: a railroad from Alfa Romeo at Portello came in the neighborhood in Via Giovanni da Udine, ran through the present Via Pannunzio to go through the fields in Via Alassio where it entered in the station, time that look far away as slightly different is the geography of the district. Still remains, however, a small stretch of the track of that railroad in Via Giovanni da Udine, Viale Certosa corner.
Over time, especially from the 70s onwards, small industrial activities have been converted, closed or relocated. The industrial goods were replaced by companies that offer industrial services. In this way, there has been a gradual shift to larger buildings and modern.
The perimeter of the streets Via Ludovico di Breme, Via Galliari, Locchi, Via Giovanni da Udine, Via Brunetti, Via Alassio, Via Cantoni are entirely industrial, as well as Via Montefeltro.
Multinational companies settled in the area in the twentieth century are: Bayer with the offices in a building with large windows in Viale Certosa, 230