Mario Bacciocchi e il progetto del Piccolo Cottolengo

The essay, based on a rich and unpublished archive documentation, illustrates the project and the historical-architectural inspiring motifs of the Piccolo Cottolengo Milanese, commissioned by Don Luigi Orione in the 1930s on the outskirts of Milan and entrusted to the architect Mario Bacciocchi. Together with the educational and cultural background of the important Italian architect, the ideal assumptions of the neo-medieval matrix of the work can be identified, the use of materials such as bricks in close harmony with the great tradition of Lombard Romanesque and the close links with other ancient and newly built contruction sites, expression of the fruitful and original construction season of the Ambrosian city, between the two wars. The connections with Enrico Mattei and the subsequent beginning of Metanopoli, as well as with the curia, the archiepiscopals Ildefonso Schuster and Giovanni Battista Montini, for the interior furnishings (altars, baptistery, frontals, tabernacle, etc.) and the structure of building are particularly relevant.