Guastalla Garden - Municipality of Milan

Garden of Guastalla

Town Hall 1
Arrival: via della Guastalla, via Francesco Sforza
Working hours::

January and February: 7:00 - 19:00
March: 7am - 00pm
April: 7am - 00pm
May to September: 7am - 00pm
October: 7am - 00pm
November and December: 7:00 - 19:00

How to get: M3 Crocetta - Bus 84/94

Area: 12.000 mXNUMX.
Year of realization: 1555; restoration: 1938 and 1998
Designers: Renzo Gerla and Amedeo Fassi (1938); Studio Land (1998)

What to do at the park:

equipped play area;
stroll;
stop and relax;
run along the avenues;
recognize plants with map , guide, which report the exact location and names of the plants;
sharing station: BikeMI in via San Barnaba
dog area dog area (dogs can roam free within the garden in certain indicated time slots);
water house;
nursery school at the entrance to the garden;
present association: "Friends of Guastalla"

The park in brief

The Guastalla park is a historic garden, located between the University of Milan, the Maggiore Hospital and the central synagogue and offers students, residents and anyone who wishes the possibility of a soothing break in the greenery among centenary trees, a large lawn and valuable architectural elements.

From the entrance on via Sforza and from the top of the access staircase it is possible to take in the entire park and the first architectural element you come across at a glance, the baroque fishpond. It is a large pool with stone balustrades and iron railings, made up of two communicating terraces surrounded by rose bushes, hawthorns and topiary boxwoods.
Originally, the water in the fishpond came from the Naviglio which flowed in what is now Via Francesco Sforza.

As regards the botanical aspect, the garden is home to centuries-old trees, including a group of beeches, magnolias, silver maples and an imposing black walnut. The catalpa, known as the cigar tree, stands out, with its monumental twisted trunk and asymmetrical foliage.

The artistic area includes, on the sides of the fishpond, a seventeenth-century aedicule containing a stucco depicting Mary Magdalene assisted by angels and a neoclassical temple by Luigi Cagnola while, on the external perimeter, on the corner between via Guastalla and via S Barnaba there is an elegant fountain.

The Guastalla park is an Italian garden, created as part of a larger project at the behest of Paola Ludovica Torelli, Countess of Guastalla, and was finished in 1555.

The flooring is in concrete.

History and Architecture

Commissioned by Countess Paola Ludovica Torelli della Guastalla and completed in 1555, it was built in the Italian garden style.

It housed the “Collegio della Guastalla” charitable foundation. In 1938 the Municipality of Milan acquired the entire complex and entrusted the restoration project to the architect Renzo Gerla for the architectural part and to the engineer Gaetano Fassi for the botanical part.

The intervention involved replacing the surrounding wall with a fence to offer the previously hidden space to view and decorating the area around the fishpond with rose bushes and ball-shaped box trees. Due to building speculation, the continuous green band that linked the Guastalla Garden to the Sormani Park was subsequently cancelled.

In April 1997, Studio Land was commissioned for a redevelopment project.

Architectural heritage and artefacts

The fishpond, a baroque jewel, with stone balustrades and iron railings, made up of two terraces connected to each other via four flights of stairs.

Seventeenth-century aedicula containing a terracotta and stucco group depicting the "Magdalene assisted by angels" and a neoclassical temple by Luigi Cagnola.

Outside the garden there is a valuable fountain on the corner of via della Commenda and via San Barnaba.

Flora, water and surroundings

Among the tree species

silver maple (Acer saccharinum)
tulip tree (Liriodendron tulipifera)
trifoliate orange (Poncirus trifoliata)
Atlas cedar (Cedrus atlantica)
pendulous beech (Fagus sylvatica'Pendula')
English oak (Quercus robur)
pink horse chestnut (Aesculus x carnea)
liquidambar (Liquidambar styraciflua)
wild lime (Tilia cordata)

Among the shrubs

aucuba (Aucuba japonica)
quincester (Cotoneaster)
eleagnus (Eleagnus spp)
mahonia (Mahonia aquifolium).
nandina (Nandina spp)
pittosporum (Pittosporum tobira)

Trees worth mentioning: Catalpa (Catalpa bignonioides Walt), almost a vegetal sculpture, with a monumental twisted trunk and asymmetrical foliage and a group of beech trees (Fagus sylvatica Asplenifolia), which shades the play area at the entrance from via Guastalla. The Volunteer Ecological Guards have set up a botanical route with signs to indicate trees and shrubs.

Water and surroundings

From the entrance on Via Sforza, a 455 mXNUMX baroque fishpond is clearly visible, which replaced the original sixteenth-century lake in the seventeenth century.