The founding identity of Varese and its castellanze is connected to the sacred space of the collegiate church and the baptistery, places of worship of medieval origin, reshaped several times throughout the modern and contemporary age. A second, crucial moment of qualification of the village, coincided with the design (1604), and the stratified construction over the centuries, of the Sacro Monte della Madonna del Rosario complex, since 2003 included in the UNESCO World Heritage lists. From the end of the seventeenth century, with the peak reached in the third quarter of the eighteenth century, thanks to the presence of Francesco III d’Este, duke of Modena and lord of Varese, the village and the castles took on a renewed vocation, becoming a patrician holiday resort and of leisure. A characterization destined for further development between the 19th and early 20th centuries, a phase marked by the flowering of eclectic and Art Nouveau building, also a driving force for the tourism sector. In conjunction with the recognition of the city as the provincial capital (1927), profound urban transformations took place, in a fascist and rationalist style, which contributed to creating a new image of the various city areas, between the center and the periphery. After a long gestation, the University of Insubria was founded on 14 July 1998, with its headquarters located in the former Collegio Sant’Ambrogio, located on the Bosto hill, in a position overlooking the front of Piazza della Repubblica, commercial hub of the city. In the following twenty years, the articulation and increase of the university campuses, also in the context outside the Varese area, led to a widespread presence of the University poles in several parts of the city. This has led to the reuse, i.e. the redevelopment and re-functionalization of 19th-20th century spaces. The contribution intends to analyze aspects, dynamics and perspectives inherent to the dialectic of the present vocation of Varese as a university city, both with respect to the previous transformation phases of the city, and to future perspectives, in particular connected, to the redevelopment of the Rectorate area as an urban cultural pole.
Varese sacra e universitaria: dinamiche storico-trasformative tra arte, architettura, turismo e urbanistica
Laura Facchin
2025-01-01
Abstract
The founding identity of Varese and its castellanze is connected to the sacred space of the collegiate church and the baptistery, places of worship of medieval origin, reshaped several times throughout the modern and contemporary age. A second, crucial moment of qualification of the village, coincided with the design (1604), and the stratified construction over the centuries, of the Sacro Monte della Madonna del Rosario complex, since 2003 included in the UNESCO World Heritage lists. From the end of the seventeenth century, with the peak reached in the third quarter of the eighteenth century, thanks to the presence of Francesco III d’Este, duke of Modena and lord of Varese, the village and the castles took on a renewed vocation, becoming a patrician holiday resort and of leisure. A characterization destined for further development between the 19th and early 20th centuries, a phase marked by the flowering of eclectic and Art Nouveau building, also a driving force for the tourism sector. In conjunction with the recognition of the city as the provincial capital (1927), profound urban transformations took place, in a fascist and rationalist style, which contributed to creating a new image of the various city areas, between the center and the periphery. After a long gestation, the University of Insubria was founded on 14 July 1998, with its headquarters located in the former Collegio Sant’Ambrogio, located on the Bosto hill, in a position overlooking the front of Piazza della Repubblica, commercial hub of the city. In the following twenty years, the articulation and increase of the university campuses, also in the context outside the Varese area, led to a widespread presence of the University poles in several parts of the city. This has led to the reuse, i.e. the redevelopment and re-functionalization of 19th-20th century spaces. The contribution intends to analyze aspects, dynamics and perspectives inherent to the dialectic of the present vocation of Varese as a university city, both with respect to the previous transformation phases of the city, and to future perspectives, in particular connected, to the redevelopment of the Rectorate area as an urban cultural pole.
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