The front door is off to one side, and the first two floors are held up by cast iron. On Milan’s grandest avenue, that was a provocation.
At a glance
Casa Barelli stands at Corso Venezia 7, a few steps from Piazza San Babila, at the beginning of the avenue that carries the greatest concentration of aristocratic and industrial palaces in Milan. It was built in 1907 to a design by the architect Cesare Mazzocchi and rises through five levels.
History
Corso Venezia had been the promenade of the Milanese nobility since the eighteenth century, and by 1907 it was the address where new money proved itself: Palazzo Castiglioni, the manifesto of Milanese Liberty, had gone up at number 47 only four years earlier. Casa Barelli belongs to that competition, and to the moment when the new style stopped being an experiment on the edges of the city and moved onto its most expensive street. The ground floor today holds a fashion boutique, one of several that occupy the historic fronts along this stretch.
What you see
The composition is deliberately asymmetrical, with the entrance placed towards the right rather than at the centre — a departure from the Milanese habit of a strong axial portal. Cast iron sets the character. It dominates the lower two levels, cutting a horizontal band across the front, and returns above in the slender pillars that divide the windows of the second and third floors and in the balustrades of the balconies. Stone, iron and cast iron are used side by side, and the Liberty ornament is carried by all three.
Cultural significance
Cast iron on a residential front was still unusual in Milan in 1907; it belonged to markets, arcades and department stores. Using it here, on Corso Venezia, made an argument about what a modern city house could be made of. The asymmetry makes the same argument in the plan: the facade is organised around how the building is used rather than around a ceremonial centre.
Key facts
- Architect: Cesare Mazzocchi
- Built: 1907
- Five levels above ground; asymmetrical facade with off-centre entrance
- Materials: stone, iron and cast iron, structural and decorative
- Address: Corso Venezia 7, Milan
- Coordinates: 45.4678 N, 9.1981 E
Practical information & getting there
Metro M1 San Babila, two minutes on foot. The building is in private and commercial use; the facade is visible from the pavement at any hour, and the cast-iron detail of the lower floors repays a close look. Palazzo Castiglioni is fifteen minutes further up the same avenue.
Sources & resources
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