Nicolò Savarino Park

Town Hall 9
Arrival: via Livigno, via Guerzoni
Opening hours: 

  • January: 6:30 - 17:00
  • February: 6am - 30pm
  • March: 6am - 30pm
  • April: 6am - 30pm
  • May: 6am - 30pm
  • June, July and August: 6am - 30pm
  • September: 6am - 30pm
  • October: 6am - 30pm
  • November: 6am - 30pm
  • December: 6am - 30pm

How to Get There:: bus 82 - trolleybus 90/91

Area: 31.600 sqm
Year of realization: circa 1990
Project: Milan Municipality Technical Office
 

What to do at the park

  • 2 play areas, one with a zip line; 
  • stroll; 
  • stop and relax; 
  • running and cycling along the avenues; 
  • football field; 
  • water house; 
  • 2 dog areas.

The park is equipped with a self-cleaning toilet.

The park in brief

The Nicolò Savarino park, dedicated to the municipal police officer killed on duty, has a singular origin and is located in what was the site of the Agostino Bassi Hospital, built after a smallpox epidemic and used as a place of treatment until 1970. 

At the end of the 800th century the Municipality of Milan took over Villa Hanau in Dergano and built a new hospital there, divided into six pavilions, distinguished by disease. Internal travel took place via a decauville, a narrow gauge railway. Known as the Derganino, the hospital hosted patients suffering from smallpox, tuberculosis, cholera and meningitis. In the 50s, those who had contracted Singapore or Asian disease were welcomed, while the last hospitalizations of infectious patients date back to the 70s.

The former hospital garden has valuable aspects for the flora, fauna and neighboring buildings. Tree-lined avenues start from the three entrances and branch off into secondary alleys, where the old pavilions now become clinics and public facilities meet. There are shady trees such as two majestic hackberry trees, and then cedars, maples, oaks, liquidambars, magnolias and paulownias. 

The northern part is interesting both from a faunal and architectural point of view: it offers refuge to swallows, redstarts, owls and great tits and there is the nineteenth-century Villa Hanau, first owned by industrialists from Mantua, then home to the hospital offices and now the Area council.

The Park, named after the botanist and naturalist Agostino Bassi (1773-1856), is located in the area that was the site of the Bassi Hospital, built after the smallpox epidemic of 1833, used as a place of treatment until the 70s and surrounded by a large garden.

Three tree-lined avenues start from the three entrances and structure the network of paths; a diagonal path connects the play area with a small amphitheater with green steps, while on via Guerzoni a football field closes the area.

The park is bordered by buildings that were originally integrated into it; The pavilions and garden were in fact part of the hospital complex. Today, these buildings house some clinics, an ambulance point and a local police detachment, the others are disused.

The park, already named after the botanist and naturalist Agostino Bassi (1773-1856), has been dedicated to the local police officer since 2013 Nicolò Savarino who on 12 January 2012 was tragically hit and killed by a car during a check. 

Along via Livigno and via Guerzoni the old brick wall that surrounded the hospital complex is still visible; in via Guerzoni, which borders the park to the north, there is the nineteenth-century Villa Hanau, which housed the hospital offices and which today, after the restoration, is the seat of the Zone 9 Council.

Main tree species

  • American maple (Acer negundo)
  • sycamore maple (Acer pseudoplatanus)
  • Norway maple (Acer platanoides)
  • tulip tree (Liriodendron tulipifera)
  • hackberry (Celtis australis)
  • hornbeam (Carpinus betulus)
  • Atlantic cedar (Cedrus atlantica)
  • Himalayan cedar (Cedrus deodara)
  • common fig (Ficus carica)
  • liquidambar (Liquidambar styraciflua)
  • magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora)
  • elm (Ulmus spp)
  • paulownia (Paulownia tomentosa).
  • plane tree (Platanus spp)
  • oaks (Quercus coccinea and Q. rubra)
  • mountain ash (Sorbus aucuparia)
  • lime (Tilia spp)

Worthy of note are two majestic hackberry trees near the play area.

Fauna

The northern part of the park, less frequented, offers refuge to numerous birds such as redstarts, flycatchers, owls, swallows, crows, crows and great tits

Arrival
January: 6am - 30pm
February: 6am - 30pm
March: 6am - 30pm
April: 6am - 30pm
May: 6am - 30pm
June, July and August: 6am - 30pm
September: 6am - 30pm
October: 6am - 30pm
November: 6am - 30pm
December: 6am - 30pm

View of the park with the amphitheatre

Subjects: 

Updated: 18/04/2024