Milano EXPO 1906

In 1906 Milan was bound to be host to the universal EXPO. The event took place from April to November.

It was the turning point for this city.

In the photo gallery you can see some of the images related to the event.

This map represents Milan two years before. You can see the Navigli water belt circling the city center. The areas that have been interested by the expo where the Sempione Park, behind the Castello, and Piazza d’Armi, soon to become the Trade Fair of Milan for almost a century and now hosting the Citylife area with its towers.

The two locations of the expo 1906 where connected by an elevated railway built in few months, 1.3 km long. A technology portent for the time.

Of the Expo 1906 you can find few remnants today, one is the Aquarium and the other is the Torre Branca both located in the Parco Sempione area just behind the Castello and at a walking distance from the Duomo.

From the more than 100 meters height of Torre Branca you can take the best possible views (and pictures) of the city today. At sunset in a clear day you will discover with awe the mountains surrounding Milan.

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[list style=”square”][list_item]Renovation work by architect Luca Beltrami on Castello Sforzesco is completed.[/list_item][list_item]Engineer Vittorio Brambilla builds the Isotta Fraschini plant in the vicinity of viale Monte Rosa.[/list_item][list_item]Italy’s first film producing companies, S.A. Bonetti and Comerio Film, are established.[/list_item][list_item]26 January: Giorgio Enrico Falck founds, “Società anonima acciaierie e ferriere lombarde”, which is later relocated to Sesto S. Giovanni.[/list_item][list_item]29 April: Inauguration of the International Exposition at Parco Sempione.[/list_item][list_item]1 May: Buffalo Bill and his entourage of Indians and Cowboys performs at the Arena.[/list_item][list_item]1 June: Official opening of the Sempione tunnel.[/list_item][list_item]14 June: The Municipal Waterworks in via Cenisio become operative.[/list_item][list_item]3 August: Several objects displayed by the Fabbrica del Duomo are destroyed by a fire at one of the pavilions of the International Exposition.[/list_item][list_item]8 September: inauguration of the main door of the Duomo designed by Ludovico Pogliaghi.[/list_item][list_item]2 November: Famous Italian film director Luchino Visconti in born in Milan.[/list_item][list_item]11 November: Celestino Usuelli and Carlo Crespi, travelling from Milan to Aix-les-Bains, become the first people to fly over the Alps in an air balloon.[/list_item][/list] [/alert_box]

[alert_box style=”white” title=”World Events happened in 1906″]
[list style=”square”][list_item]First flying machine patent granted. The Wright brothers are granted the first U.S. Patent 821393 for a “Flying Machine”[/list_item][list_item]Italian wins Nobel Prize. Italian poet Giosuè Carducci is awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.[/list_item][list_item]Birth of the Rolls Royce. British engineer, Sir Frederick Henry Royce, enters into a partnership with car dealer Charles Steward Rolls (15 March, 1906).[/list_item][list_item]Summer Olympic Games in Athens. Sportsmen from across the world return to Athens to celebrate the 10th anniversary marking the advent of the first Olympic Games (22 April – 2 May,1906).[/list_item][list_item]Death of Pierre Curie. A pioneer in the study of phenomena related to magnetism and radioactivity, Pierre Curie was one of the most prominent physicists in history.[/list_item][list_item]First Targa Florio Rally. The first Targa Florio motor-racing event is held on a treacherous stretch in the Madonie Mountains in Sicily.[/list_item][list_item]Founding of F.C. Torino. The ‘garnet’ lineup, known in the ‘40s as Grande Torino, is officially established.[/list_item][list_item]Famous people born in 1906. Irish writer, playwright and poet Samuel Beckett, entrepreneur and politician Enrico Mattei, film directors Roberto Rossellini and Luchino Visconti, German philosopher Hannah Arendt, Soviet leader Leonid Breznev, Italian racing-car driver Nino Farina and writer Dino Buzzati.[/list_item][/list]
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