A part of Milan is reborn. It is called Porta Nuova: a name that already belongs to the city’s heritage. Porta Nuova pours new life into one of the hearts of Milan, involving extraordinary energies that will contribute to the quiet industriousness of a city and a region that have always shown how they can excel on the European stage. Porta Nuova has accepted a challenge: reclaiming an abandoned area that had fallen prey to decay. The surrounding neighbourhoods have been an inspiration, spurring a dialogue that can now restore the harmony and the sense of balance of the existing architecture, integrating it with projects for the three neighbourhoods: Garibaldi, Varesine and Isola.

The history of Porta Nuova is made of paths and communication. Already in the 19th century, when Milan’s Central Station were located in Piazza della Repubblica, the railway lines that crisscrossed Lombardy went through the Garibaldi, Varesine, and Isola areas.

In the first decades of the 20th century, the new Central Station was built in its current location, leaving room for the Porta Nuova station in the Varesine area. In the Sixties, when the Porta Garibaldi station was built, the functions of the Varesine area were shifted, leaving an empty lot: the fate of an area that was strategic for Milan was left hanging for more than forty years. A wound in the urban texture was generated in this way, causing the wider neighbourhood to “disconnect” not only from the city as a whole, but even from the areas in the immediate vicinity.  In 2007, at long last, the tiles of the city’s mosaic are being put together in the area of Porta Nuova.