Via Novara, measured from the crossroads

The crossroads, and its axis

Two streets cross at a set of traffic lights: via Novara, which comes from the east and heads for the countryside, and via San Giusto, which climbs to the stadium and descends to the hospital. This page takes them one at a time, then follows the axis: five and a half kilometres, thirty-one junctions, six working stretches, each measured from here.

From the satellite

The four corners, seen from above

The long blocks of Harar to the north-east, the hospital pavilions to the south, the green of the cutting to the north-west, the countryside to the west. All maps.

The four corners

What begins at each corner of the crossroads

It is not a symmetrical junction: four different pieces of city begin at its four corners, built in different decades for different reasons. This is what you see standing still on the pavement.

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Diagram

From the crossroads to the stadium, on foot

The match-day route, stop by stop.

Chart

How far everything is from the crossroads

Straight-line distance from the crossroads of via Novara and via San Giusto to each place’s reference point, calculated from the coordinates in the page inventory Streets. For the walking route to the stadium, see the section above.

1. Via Harar410 m
2. Piazza Axum480 m
3. San Carlo hospital550 m
4. San Siro stadium, centre of the pitch720 m
5. Former trotting track880 m
6. Flat-racing course1,410 m
7. Piazzale Selinunte1,420 m
8. La Maura racecourse1,840 m
9. Monte Stella2,330 m

The line, to scale

The black mark is the crossroads. Each tick is a junction: above the line those on the north side, below those on the south side. Left is towards the centre, right towards the countryside. The filters below highlight the selected ticks in red and leave the others grey.

Chapters that start here

The crossroads as named in the story

{{ capitoliConto }}. The count is mechanical: how many times the chapter names the junction, the traffic lights or via San Giusto, with the street name counting double. Chapters (in Italian) are on the page Stories.

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By public transport

From the crossroads, by public transport

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All lines and maps, in Transport →

The north-east corner

The Harar estate, in figures and buildings

Built from 1951 to 1955 under the INA-Casa programme, to a town plan by Luigi Figini, Gino Pollini and Gio Ponti. It is enclosed by via Harar, via Novara and via San Giusto, and begins at the north-east corner of the crossroads. Two types of housing: the «horizontal skyscrapers», long five-storey linear blocks, and the «insulae», two-storey single-family houses grouped in small blocks.

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Chronology

The crossroads over time

The dates that made the crossroads, from country road to metro.

1. 1879Steam on the road to NovaraOn 2 August the Milan–Magenta tramway opens as far as Sedriano, the «Gamba de Legn». It runs along today’s via Novara.
2. 1917The airfield on via San GiustoOn the Baggio parade ground Enrico Forlanini’s works have their hangar at the junction of via San Giusto and via Domokos: it is the «Remo La Valle» airfield.
3. 1928State road 11 is createdThe Padana Superiore, Turin–Novara–Milan–Venice. It enters Milan at kilometre 132: that is via Novara.
4. 1951–1955The Harar estateThe INA-Casa housing by Figini, Pollini and Ponti fills the north-east corner of the crossroads.
5. 1957The last steam runOn 31 August the Magenta tramway closes.
6. 1967San Carlo hospitalIt stands on the former Baggio parade ground. Design and site management by Arturo Braga, with Gio Ponti as general consultant. First patient on 30 June 1966, official opening on 14 October 1967. It is reached from via San Giusto.
7. 2015The M5 reaches the stadiumOn 29 April San Siro Stadio station opens, western terminus of the lilac line, in piazzale Axum.

From the photo collection

The crossroads in photographs

All records in the photo collection.

Video

The road to Novara, in the days of the steam tram

Videos published on YouTube, with title and channel, in Italian. They load only when you press play.

Where it continues

• Boundaries, names, waters, in Geography.
• The axis, junction by junction, in The spine.
• The streets, one by one, in Streets.
• Metro, tram and bus, in Transport.
• Chapters from the crossroads, in Stories.

Video

The M5 reaches San Siro

Sources for this page

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Distances are measured from the crossroads along the axis, rounded to the hundred metres by a single rule. Where two measurements disagree the primary source prevails. The criterion is set out in Method.

What this page rests on

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