Lion masks at the roofline, dragon heads over the third-floor windows — a year later, on the same short street, the same architect let all of it go.
At a glance
Casa Vanoni stands at Via Spadari 7, on the short street a few steps from the Duomo that also holds Casa Ferrario and Casa Giovini. It was built in 1907–1908 to a design by the architect Achille Manfredini, who returned to the same street the following year to build Casa Giovini a few doors down. The building rises through four levels above ground plus a mansard storey.
History
Via Spadari was rebuilt almost entirely in the first decade of the twentieth century, and it is the one street in central Milan where the whole arc of Liberty can be read from a single pavement. Casa Ferrario, by Ernesto Pirovano with ironwork by Alessandro Mazzucotelli, opened the sequence from 1902. Manfredini closed it with two houses of his own: Casa Vanoni in 1907–1908, then Casa Giovini in 1908–1909, on the neighbouring plot.
What you see
The facade is vigorous Liberty, carried on load-bearing iron elements at the ground and first floor that make the logic of the composition legible: a giant order of pilasters divides the front into three parts. The decorative apparatus is dense — cornices, wrought-iron parapets, corbels — and climaxes at the roofline, where a curved pediment set into the main cornice carries a pair of lion masks. Dragon heads ornament the window surrounds of the third floor, whose openings give onto a long balcony with a wrought-iron parapet light enough to read as lace against the brickwork.
Cultural significance
Read next to Casa Giovini, built by the same architect one year later on the same street, Casa Vanoni is the fuller statement: lions, dragons, a giant pilaster order, wrought iron worked into every parapet. Giovini drops nearly all of it. The two buildings together let a visitor watch Milanese Liberty change its mind within twelve months, on one architect’s drawing board.
Key facts
- Architect: Achille Manfredini
- Built: 1907–1908
- Four levels above ground plus a mansard storey
- Decoration: lion masks and a curved pediment at the cornice, dragon-head window surrounds on the third floor, wrought-iron balcony parapet
- Address: Via Spadari 7, Milan
- Coordinates: 45.4635 N, 9.1871 E
Practical information & getting there
Metro M1/M3 Duomo, five minutes on foot down Via Torino. A private apartment building: the facade is the visit. Via Spadari is short and reads best walked end to end — Casa Ferrario first, then Casa Vanoni, then Casa Giovini a few steps further on.
Sources & resources
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