Citadel of archives. From warehouse to large European archival hub and cultural centre
Cocco: “The result of five years of work. The future is the birth of the Mi.MA., an impressive archive ready to host the documentary heritage of the entire metropolitan area"
Milan, January 27 2021 – From municipal warehouse to archival, cultural and high-tech innovation hub. From 2016 to today, the Citadel of Archives in via Gregorovius 15 has been the protagonist of a constant evolution which will find its maximum expression in the birth of the archive center “Mi.MA.” (Milan Metropolitan Archive), whose construction was entrusted to MM Spa and whose work is expected to start in June 2022.
“The Citadel of Archives is a center of excellence in the Italian archival panorama but it is also much more – declares the councilor for Digital Transformation and Civic Services Roberta Cocco –. Thanks to the constant work of the last five years, the municipal archive has also become a point of reference for the Niguarda district, thanks to the artistic urban redevelopment interventions that have allowed citizens to know and appreciate a place that might have seemed inaccessible and distant. From the outside to the inside, Cittadella is a place of innovation and memory, of history and technology, of education, of art and culture and now, thanks to the new Mi.MA. project, it will become an impressive archive ready to host the heritage documentation of the entire Milanese metropolitan area".
Today Cittadella degli Archivi contains four different souls. The first is the archival one. The beating heart is represented by Eustorgio, the archivist robot capable of automatically extracting the folders present in each of the 11 thousand aluminum tubs, each containing approximately 5 linear meters of paper. At the moment, within the municipal archive, there are approximately 200 thousand files preserved since 1865, 2 million files for a total of 70 linear kilometers of paper kept in two buildings. Among these are authentic rarities, such as the purchase contract for Michelangelo's Rondanini Pietà, the announcement of Verdi's funeral, and the drawings created by great Milanese architects.
At the end of 2020, thanks to the collaboration with MM, the archive capacity was implemented, with the creation of two new automated warehouses, the "fourth and fifth bay" and a new buffer for managing requests. The interventions will allow a 20% increase in input and extraction activities.
The second soul is linked to art and culture as drivers of an important urban redevelopment project in the Niguarda district. Among the most significant interventions, the collaboration with forty international street artists, painters, sculptors and artists active in Milan who decorated the external walls of the municipal archive paying homage to the documentary heritage preserved in via Gregorovius. The project is still ongoing, even if the health emergency did not allow artistic interventions in 2020.
Also worth mentioning is the installation of Neon by the artistic duo Vedovamazzei, which took place in 2018 on the occasion of the "Milan Digital Week", which illuminates one of the buildings, the multi-storey tower, created thanks to the Aem Foundation. The external garden was also redeveloped thanks to a collaboration with the Rotary Club and was named after Fernanda Wittgens.
The third vocation of the Citadel is linked to training. The multi-year partnership with the Liceo Artistico di Brera for school-work alternation continues, which has strengthened the synergies between the Public Administration and the school with the aim of enhancing the individual potential of the students who have participated in digitalisation and urban recovery programmes.
Furthermore, on 7 March the second edition of the University Master in Digital Humanities will start, organized by the State University of Milan, in partnership with the Department of Digital Transformation and Civic Services and the Citadel of Archives. The training course aims to bring together companies and businesses in the digital and archival world with students of humanities and IT training, as well as providing highly professional skills in the field of document digitisation, digital publishing, virtual museology, conservation and dissemination of cultural heritage through new technologies.
Finally, Cittadella degli Archivi is also a space that has hosted exhibitions and cultural initiatives over the years. The latest, currently underway, is dedicated to Philippe Daverio, art critic and former councilor of the Municipality of Milan, who recently passed away. Due to the health emergency, the exhibition, set up in the Cittadella hall, can currently be visited exclusively online at www.philippedaverioamilano.it and collects letters, documents, curiosities and memorabilia on the figure of the Councilor for Culture Daverio.
The transformation and innovation path of Cittadella degli Archivi continues with the expansion project entrusted to MM, which involves the construction of a new mechanized plant, new offices and warehouses in a currently abandoned area.
The new large archive center will be called Mi.MA. (Milan Metropolitan Archive) - This is the archive of our Milan! and will host, in addition to the residual documentation of the Municipality of Milan, also archives of other bodies in the Milan metropolitan area. An institution that will operate across the board in the documentary field, from logistics to digitalisation, from reclamation to the cultural valorization of archival heritage. With this operation, the potential storage capacity of the Mi.MA. it could exceed 150 linear km.
Updated: 28/01/2021