Institutional portal - Municipality of Milan

Milan, July 8 2020 - The area of ​​Piazzale Baiamonti which until 2017 hosted a petrol station is currently in the custody of the Tamoil company, which will hand it back to the Municipality of Milan in the next few days.

Tamoil has in fact completed and certified the remediation of the soil after the dismantling of the petrol station.

As already established by the Administration, the area will in the future host the second "pyramid" by Herzog & DeMeuron, home to the National Museum of the Resistance. The building will occupy about a third of the area, while the remaining part will find space for a new garden. The memorandum of understanding between the Municipality of Milan and the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism (MiBACT) is currently being stipulated which will allow administrative progress for the construction of the Museum to proceed. The Administration's goal is to start work in 2022.

The recovery of land previously polluted and compromised by the presence of the petrol station will therefore make it possible to host a new precious cultural institution in Milan. 

By procedure, a public area abandoned for private use must be returned free to the Administration. As the Municipality learned this morning, Tamoil intervened in recent days to remove the elements of occupation.

It is not the objective of the Municipality of Milan to leave the area fenced off and unusable until the start of work for the construction of the National Museum of the Resistance. Therefore, once the area has returned to the Administration, the possibility of activating collaboration agreements or other contractual methods will be assessed, within the framework of municipal regulations, to allow public use until the construction sites start, in compliance and in the protection of the spaces in which the remains of the Spanish walls emerged during the reclamation excavations.