From the crossroads · places and traditions

What to see, what to celebrate

From the crossroads of via Novara and via San Giusto: the places to see with their walking distance, the festivals that return every year, the people who left a mark. Each photograph has its record; each place is on the satellite.

From the satellite

The places, around the crossroads

To watch

Nine places, nearest first

The racecourses

Flat racing, trotting, La Maura: the dates

The racecourses lie between 1.1 and 1.6 kilometres north-east of the crossroads. They came before the stadium and before the houses.

1. 1913The designPaolo Vietti-Violi designs the new racecourse, to replace the Trotter on via Padova.
2. 1920The flat-racing course opensThe stands are in Liberty style. It is the only racing venue declared a monument of national interest.
3. 1925The trotting track opensOn 15 November, next to the flat-racing course.
4. 1926The stadium arrivesOn 19 September, south of the racecourses, on the same meadow.
5. 1931The Gran Premio di MilanoOn 28 June the flat-racing stands are full.
6. 1999Leonardo’s HorseSince 10 September Nina Akamu’s bronze has stood at the entrance, piazzale dello Sport 6.
7. 2015La MauraOn 9 May the third venue opens, at via Lampugnano 95: born as the training track of the two San Siro racecourses.

Leonardo’s Horse

From a 1482 drawing to piazzale dello Sport

In 1482 Ludovico il Moro asked Leonardo da Vinci for an equestrian monument to his father, Francesco Sforza. Leonardo worked on it for years but only reached the clay model, which was lost. Five centuries later the American Charles Dent set up a foundation to make it; the sculptor Nina Akamu modelled it on Leonardo’s drawings. The bronze arrived in Milan in seven pieces and since 10 September 1999 has stood at the racecourse entrance, piazzale dello Sport 6: 7.30 metres high, ten tonnes. In 2019, five hundred years after Leonardo’s death, the Leonardo Horse Project brought to the racecourse thirteen scale reproductions signed by designers. The Horse area is open every day from 10 to 19, free entry.

Video

The Horse, up close

Two visits to the Horse at the racecourse entrance, from 2012 and 2017. The videos, in Italian, load only when you press play.

The Chiesa Vecchia of Baggio

A thousand-year-old bell tower and the church of the Sagra

On via Ceriani, in the village of Baggio, the Romanesque bell tower of Sant’Apollinare dates from the 10th century, inspired by that of Santa Maria presso San Satiro, with mullioned windows growing larger on the top two floors. In 1628 Cardinal Federico Borromeo made the church a parish: since then there has been the Sagra. The church burned in 1870 and was reconsecrated in 1875; only the bell tower is original.

From here comes the Milanese saying «andà a Bagg a sonà l’òrghen», going to Baggio to play the organ: legend had it the organ was only painted on the wall. Panels in the church explain that this was not so.

Monte Stella

The Garden of the Righteous of the whole world

In January 2003, on Gariwo’s proposal, the City of Milan opened on Monte Stella the Garden of the Righteous of the whole world. Each person recognised as Righteous has a tree and a stone. From here came the Day of the Righteous on 6 March, a civil solemnity in Italy since 2017.

Eastwards · Municipio 8

The city of sport, as far as the old Fiera

The stadium and the racecourse were not born alone. Between the 1920s and 1935, near the Fiera Campionaria, the Palazzo dello Sport, the trotting track, the stadium, the Lido and the Vigorelli rose. Today the M5 links San Siro Stadio and Tre Torri.

Things to do, all year round

The stadium and the racecourse open

Festivals and traditions

The year, festival by festival

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Shopping

Markets and shops of the neighbourhood

East of the crossroads, in the San Siro social housing neighbourhood, there is a covered market from 1957 and two street markets. On the axis, a historic shop; to the north-east, in Municipio 8, five more. To the west, in Quinto Romano, there is the Monday market.

• Selinunte covered municipal marketpiazzale Selinunte 2 · Municipio 7Built in 1957, 749 m² of sales area. The City has put its management out to tender as a neighbourhood space.
• Zamagna marketvia Zamagna · San Siro neighbourhoodA street market five minutes from the covered one: 79 food stalls and 117 non-food.
• Osoppo marketvia OsoppoOn Thursdays and Saturdays, less than ten minutes’ walk from piazzale Selinunte.
• Gelateria Florianavia Novara 139 · historic shopOn the axis, since the 1950s. The City has entered it in the register of historic shops, which recognises shops active for at least fifty years.
• Arpino–Ferrieri marketQuinto Romano · Municipio 7On Mondays from 7:30 to 14, with 18 stalls.

Historic shops to the north-east, Municipio 8

From the crossroads, beyond the stadium and the Lido, towards De Angeli, Portello and via Gallarate. Five shops and venues entered both in the City register of historic shops and in the regional list of historic and traditional businesses, which requires at least forty years of continuity of sign, management and goods. Distances are as the crow flies from the crossroads.

• Cavaler Gioiellivia Guglielmo Silva 35 · De Angeli · 2.3 km eastWatches, jewellery, silverware.
• Ornella Bijouxvia Monte Cervino 4 · De Angeli · 2.4 km eastArtistic costume jewellery.
• La Pobbiavia Gallarate 92 · Villapizzone · 2.9 km north-eastRestaurant, trattoria.
• Galbiati Arredaviale Certosa 21 · Portello · 3.2 km north-eastFurniture.
• La Boutique del Pneumaticoviale Certosa 20 · Ghisolfa · 3.3 km north-eastTyres.

Sources: Comune di Milano, Fare Impresa · record of the Selinunte covered market; Comune di Milano, Open Data · weekly open-air markets (DS291); Omnimilano, Milan markets; Comune di Milano, Register of historic shops 2004–2025; MilanoToday, historic shops awarded; Comune di Milano, Open Data · historic shops 2024; Regione Lombardia · list of historic and traditional businesses. Days and hours should be checked on the City portal.

Photographs

The churches of the festivals

In Baggio, around Sant’Apollinare, the Sagra is held; in Quinto Romano, on the churchyard of Santi Nazaro e Celso, stood the Lourdes grotto. The sequence ends with Santa Maria Nascente, the QT8 church, to the north-east. Each image leads to its record.

1. Baggio · the church of the Sagra

   Old Sant’Apollinare, seen from the gate, 1915–20

   Author unidentified · Local Facebook groups of the area and of Milanese memory · Low resolution, free of charge, for documentation · art. 70 para. 1-bis Italian law 633/1941

2. Baggio · the new church

   New church of Sant’Apollinare, 1948–53

   Author unidentified · Local Facebook groups of the area and of Milanese memory · Low resolution, free of charge, for documentation · art. 70 para. 1-bis Italian law 633/1941

3. Quinto Romano · the 1936 grotto

   Lourdes grotto, churchyard of San Celso, about 1936

   Author unidentified · Local Facebook groups of the area and of Milanese memory · Low resolution, free of charge, for documentation · art. 70 para. 1-bis Italian law 633/1941

4. QT8 · Santa Maria Nascente

   Santa Maria Nascente, façade, 13 June 2022

   Iaznavi78 · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0

5. QT8 · the plan, two circles

   Santa Maria Nascente, plan: two eccentric circles

   Ericainve, after Magistretti–Tedeschi · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0

Architecture and painted walls

Architect-designed houses and murals, around the crossroads

Within a few blocks there are houses signed by great 20th-century architects and a series of recent murals, many painted with schools and the neighbourhood. You start from the two buildings on the crossroads and move outwards. Each entry has its sources alongside.

1. Three-cylinder house, via Gavirate 27, 2015Arbalete · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
2. The same house in 1970Paolo Monti · BEIC / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
3. The lobby, with the column supporting the cylinders, 1970Paolo Monti · BEIC / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
4. Ponti’s colours, Harar estatePaolo Monti · BEIC / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0

Architecture

• The buildings by Bottoni, Morini and Villavia Novara 92 · via San Giusto 37 · 1951–1955The two linear blocks of the INA-Casa Harar estate standing on the two streets of the crossroads, one per street. They are by Piero Bottoni, Mario Morini and Carlo Villa. The four corners of the crossroads.Ministry of Culture · Census of contemporary architectureOrdine degli Architetti di Milano
• The church of San Carlo hospitalvia Pio II 3 · 1964–1969 · today Santa Maria AnnunciataBy Gio Ponti, Antonio Fornaroli and Alberto Rosselli. It is linked to the hospital by a canopy and also has an entrance from via San Giusto. The stained glass is by Ponti with Toni Zuccheri, made by Venini in Murano. Ponti and Rosselli are the same men who in 1954 gave the idea for the Compasso d’Oro award, established by La Rinascente.Ordine degli Architetti di MilanoLombardia Beni CulturaliMinistry of Culture · Atlas of contemporary architectureADI Design Museum · the Compasso d’Oro awardRinascente historical archive · the golden years 1954–1957
• Three-cylinder housevia Gavirate 27 · 1956–1962 · San Siro neighbourhoodDesign by Angelo Mangiarotti and Bruno Morassutti, structures by Aldo Favini. Nine flats of about 100 m² in three cylinders 12 metres in diameter, on hollow pillars.Ministry of Culture · Census of contemporary architectureOrdine degli Architetti di Milano
• CASVA, in the former QT8 marketvia Isernia 5 · since 30 September 2025The City’s Centre for Advanced Studies in the Visual Arts, founded in 1999, opened its seat here. It holds the archives of Milanese architects and designers; the first collection is that of Luciano Baldessari.City of MilanUrbanfileweArch

Murals

• The racecourse wallfrom via Diomede to viale Caprilli · 2019 and 2022The racecourse boundary wall, about five kilometres long, is open to Street Players jams. In 2019 the theme was the 500 years of Leonardo, in July 2022 the forty years since the 1982 World Cup.Corriere della Sera MilanoMUDEC
• A Team of DevilsIppodromo Snai San Siro, piazzale dello Sport 6 · 13 December 2024Mural by Orticanoodles for Milan’s 125 years, 20 metres long and 3 high. The fans chose the subject among several sketches, in a poll on the club’s social channels. At the centre is the founder Herbert Kilpin with the phrase about the «team of devils». It could be visited free until the end of the 2024/25 season, with entry from piazzale dello Sport 6.AC MilanIl Giorno
• Vesod’s muralpiazzale Selinunte at the corner of via Morgantini · July 2020«Il mondo di sopra», by the Turin artist Vesod, covers the façade of a building on the square. It was painted by brush in a few July days and is the first mural of the «Arte a San Siro» social cohesion project, born in 2019 with a City contribution. It was promoted by the Bookcatering cooperative, Il Telaio delle Arti and Alfabeti; Aler provided the wall. Vesod drew the neighbourhood from above and placed on it, upside down, the people of the park.Urbanfilela Repubblica MilanoMilanoTodayLaMilano
• Travelogue Muralvia Paravia at the corner of via Preneste · 2025By Agus Rúcula and Elena Mistrello, in the «MUDEC chiama San Siro» programme linked to the Travelogue exhibition on journeys and migration. The theme is travel: the artists developed it at the Museo delle Culture, from workshops with two groups of young people from the neighbourhood. The mural has a map of San Siro from which routes cross the scene; at the top, distant destinations among mountains, a pyramid, a boat and a passport.MUDECArtribune
• Baggio · A name in every neighbourhoodvia Pistoia 30, Primo Levi school · 1 December 2021Mural by Alice Lotti with the name «Baggio». It is the ninth of the «Un nome in ogni quartiere» project, devised by Milano&Partners with the City’s Office for Art in Public Spaces and co-funded by Fondazione di Comunità Milano: in each neighbourhood a wall with its name. It was designed by the pupils of the Primo Levi middle school, starting from how they see the neighbourhood they live in; Alice Lotti painted it with their help and with the production house Collater.al, which curated the work.City of Milanla Repubblica MilanoYesMilanoMudec · Milano Arte Pubblica
• Talking Wallspiazzale Fratelli Zavattari · 2018Mural by the Milanese collective Orticanoodles, promoted by the Fondazione Arrigo e Pia Pini, on the walls of the Vittorio Veneto high school and the Ettore Conti institute, painted with sixty pupils from the two schools. The theme is «Science and fragility»: the faces of ten scientists and scholars, including Louis Braille and Alexander Fleming, with phrases chosen by the pupils in the workshop. From those phrases comes the name, «talking walls». The walls run between piazzale Zavattari, viale Migliara and via Monreale.Metropolitan City of MilanVivimilano · Corriere della SeraFondazione Arrigo e Pia PiniMudec · Milano Arte Pubblica
• Blu Wallviale Murillo 9, wall of the Hotel Astoria · 3 November 2021Mural by Orticanoodles for autism awareness, presented on 3 November 2021 at viale Murillo 9. It was wanted by the hotel owners and the L’abilità charity. It is a «spring» in every shade of blue, the colour linked to autism, with the flowers that often return in the collective’s work. The two faces can be read in several ways: a child with its mother, with the educator, or with the adult it will become. Damaged in October 2022, it was restored by hand by Orticanoodles and presented again on 2 April 2024, World Autism Awareness Day.LifeGateMi-TomorrowMilanoTodayBWH Hotels Italia
• Respect San Siropiazzale Segesta 11 · 9 February 2024Mural by the Spanish collective Boa Mistura on the City’s social services building. The words «San Siro» split and blur, like the identities of the neighbourhood. Beside it, a sentence made from the texts of pupils of the Negri and Galilei-Luxemburg schools: «The neighbourhood is passion, bonds, thorns. It is houses, fear of emptiness, height and vertigo». Promoted by the City’s Office for Art in Public Spaces with Codici, Fondazione Terzoluogo, Telaio delle Arti and Bambini Bicocca.City of MilanAGIUrbanfile

Photographs of the works are on the pages of the bodies and collectives named beside each mural. Artists who wish to show a photograph of their work here can write to the San Siro e dintorni Facebook page.

People

Who left a mark, near the crossroads

From the photo collection

Churches, farmhouses and villages, in photographs

All records in the photo collection.

Where it continues

• The village festival, in Baggio festival.
• Parks and sports centres, in Parks.
• How to get there, in Transport.
• The stories of the places, in Stories.
• The stadium, in A hundred years.

Sources for this page

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Dates and figures from Lombardia Beni Culturali, the General Catalogue of Cultural Heritage, Wikipedia, Comune di Milano, Invimit and the publications indicated.

What this page rests on

Every fact is checked against at least two independent sources and, where one exists, the official source.