Institutional portal - Municipality of Milan

During the works, the frescoed vault and the original floors were discovered

Milan, 13 December 2020 – Following the discovery of important elements of a historical-artistic nature during the demolition and restoration phase of the building, the recovery project of the Orchidea Cinema in via Terraggio, approved in November 2015 and intended to return a reference point to the city for cinema and audiovisual, it has been remodeled in order to allow its recovery and valorisation.

The new functional distribution of the rooms will allow the integration and restoration of the decorative elements of the ceiling, in particular the frescoes that occupy the entire vault of the room, which emerged following the removal of layers of plaster on the vault and dating back to the 17th century; the arrangement of the facade of the former walls of the external cloister, on the side overlooking Corso Magenta; the recovery of the original Lombard terracotta floors of the main room on the ground floor.

The remodeling of the design solution, approved by the Council with the favorable opinion of the Superintendency of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape for the Metropolitan City of Milan, provides for the moving of the cinema hall to the basement and the elimination of all partitions on the ground floor (projection room , reception and toilets). In this way it will be possible to create a single large multifunctional room which will retain the original size and allow a use capable of enhancing the volumes and the frescoed vault. In fact, at the height of the Renaissance, this room was the main hall of Casa Medici, a residence donated in 1486 by Gian Galeazzo Sforza and Ludovico il Moro to Lorenzo de Medici and, although it has undergone transformations over time which have modified the original layout, it constitutes one of the most significant testimonies of Renaissance architecture in Milan.

The cinema room will therefore be built in the basement, while the first floor, previously used as offices and a projection booth, will remain rustic and will be used for maintenance of the spaces.

The concessionaire, who will be identified at the end of the works through a public selection, must be able to ensure the management of the spaces while maintaining both a high artistic quality of the cinema offering and the economic solidity of the project. To ensure long-lasting sustainability for the future manager, additional spaces will be identified for the purpose of carrying out ancillary activities (bar, cloakroom, space rental) that ensure collateral revenue to the main one, given by paying spectators.

The new distribution of spaces also involves a complete revision of the electrical and thermal systems, however the economic volume of the project, equal to one million and 300 thousand euros, will remain unchanged.