Cave Park

Town Hall 7
Arrival: via Forze Armate, Fratelli Zoia
Opening hours: free access
How to get: bus 72 | 64 | 18 | 63 | 67

Area: 1.350.000 sqm
Year of realization: 90's
Designers: Gianluigi Reggio and Oge Lodola, Urban Forestry Center of Italia Nostra with Carlo Masera, Marco Castiglioni, Alessandro Ferrari and Studio Platypus

What to do at the park

2 play areas
walk
stop and relax
running and cycling on the numerous routes
gardening and horticulture courses
urban gardens transformed into gardens
basketball and football fields
equestrian routes
fishing, with card
4 bowling greens
gardening and horticulture courses
archery and fishing competitions
3 dog areas

For more information, see the activities and events section.

The park in brief

With over a million square meters of greenery, with its 4 lakes formed by artificial basins, a pond, the waterways for a total of 24 hectares of water, the Cave park is the third largest park and unique in the system of greenery and Milanese waters. You can take walks to discover fireflies, go horseback riding, learn to shoot a bow, take care of the forest or wildflowers or simply relax by the water.

Much loved by those who know it, a destination for trips, it is located in the western area of the city and part of the southern agricultural park, together with the neighboring Bosco in the city and the Aniasi di Trenno park. It has large grassy areas, paths for walking, running, cycling and horse riding as well as woodland and lake areas suitable for observation and fishing.

Inside there are two farmhouses: the famous Linterno farmhouse and the Caldera farmhouse, still in activity and which maintains the fields through the irrigation of a fountain. It should be remembered that the Cascina Linterno, an ancient grange, located on the so-called Via Longa, a probable branch of the Via Francigena, was identified as one of Petrarch's homes during his stays in Milan.

The abundant presence of water makes it interesting for the flora, with willows, poplars, black alders and for the fauna, with numerous aquatic birds, such as the heron, the kingfisher, the cormorants, the seagulls, the coots, the gurnards water that populate it together with amphibians and reptiles. Among the bushes or on the oak trees you can also see squirrels, foxes, owls and owls. A cycle path, via the so-called Blue Bridge, connects it to Bosco in the city and to the Aniasi park, allowing long cycle-pedestrian routes entirely in the greenery, among meadows, woods, clearings and waters.

The prehistory of the Cave park begins in the 20s when 5 quarries were opened in that then agricultural area, Cabassi, Casati, Ongari, Cerruti and Aurora for the extraction of gravel and sand. Having fallen into a state of abandonment in the 60s, it gradually transformed into an illegal landfill.

The beginning of the rebirth dates back to 1980 when it was decided to implement the master plan approved in 1976 which designated the area as a park. Wanted by the Municipality of Milan, supported by the fierce associations of the then zone 18, the idea of the Cave Park took shape.

The transformation was made possible thanks to the acquisition of an area of 135 hectares against the initial 40 and the entrusting of management to Italia Nostra, which was already successfully managing Bosco in Città.
The Italia Nostra method envisaged the involvement of citizens, schools and volunteers in the construction and maintenance of the park and a plan for urgent works in order to return the progressively completed parts to public use, without waiting for the definitive conclusion of the work .

The safety of the park is guaranteed by video surveillance by the Local Police, by the SOS columns installed and by the periodic passage of the GEV, the Volunteer Ecological Guards and the Italian Rangers.

History and Architecture

Until 1997, the year in which the Municipality of Milan entrusted its management to Italia Nostra, the area where the park stands was an "off limits" area, a territory for drug dealing and illicit activities. The CFU - Urban Forestry Center - of Italia Nostra, with the help of the associations present and numerous volunteers, has transformed, with work lasting almost ten years, 122 hectares of territory into a park which has become home to many educational and of environmental education, much loved and frequented by the inhabitants of the area and by children.

The Cave Park is part of a green system in the west of Milan, in which - all within the territory of the Southern Agricultural Park of Milan - Boscoincittà, Trenno Park, the Deviatore Park system, Parco dei Fontanili, Parco Calchi Taeggi and Parco Blu. The history of the place began in the 20s with the extraction of gravel and aggregates which involved four quarries (Cabassi, Casati, Ongari, Cerutti and Aurora) and which was abandoned at the end of the 60s. 70 causing a progressive degradation of the entire area which also became an illegal landfill in the 1976s. The 1986 master plan, approved four years later, established the use of the area as a public park; in XNUMX a Committee for the Cave Park was formed, which brought together various associations active in the area.

The implementation plan approved in the same year was only partially implemented due to the many difficulties encountered, including financial ones. At that time the Municipality owned only two areas, each measuring 20 hectares, one to the north and one to the south of the park. In 1997 the turning point came with the entrusting of the area to the CFU of Italia Nostra for the creation and management of the park. After five years of work, a basic arrangement of most of the greenery and water system was achieved and the definitive restructuring of the two areas Caldera and Cabassi, which constitute the entrance to the park from the north and the south respectively.

Following the expropriations, the park's territory subsequently reached 135 hectares. The CFU project defined an operational method that included a plan for urgent works with the primary objective of opening a large part of the area to public use without waiting for the definitive conclusion of all the works. The park, inaugurated in June 2002 with a big party, today represents a set of different places and landscapes, where it is possible to both experience contact with nature and play football or bowls.

The essential elements that characterize the park are:

the woods and shrubby areas, which develop along the bed of ancient fountains, in the areas of the abandoned construction sites of the old quarries and in the new plantations under construction;
the waters of lakes and streams partially dried up and in the process of being recovered;
the large turf spaces crossed by cycle and pedestrian paths;
an agricultural area still active with the ancient Cascina “Linterno”;
the urban gardens which from their original degraded condition are progressively transformed into small gardens.

Flora, fauna, water and surroundings

Main tree species

field maple (Acer campestre)
hornbeam (Carpinus betulus)
ash (Fraxinus excelsior)
poplar (Populus spp)
oak (Quercus spp)
black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia)
willow (Salix spp).

Fauna

The park is of great wildlife interest due to the presence of amphibians, reptiles and birds, thanks to the variety of environments that offer high naturalistic standards

Water and surroundings

The lakes, with a total surface area of 29 hectares, characterize the landscape of the park which, precisely in the waters, has an element of uniqueness in the Milanese panorama.

Activities and events

You can participate in:

educational activities: gardening and horticulture courses, walks to rediscover fireflies, voluntary work sites, "free time woods" for the care of the woods and "free time flowers" for the valorization of wildflowers
sporting events: archery and fishing competitions
botanical routes: visits and itinerant entertainment to discover the flora and fauna of the park.