(Edicola Bocconi. Cimitero Monumentale, Milano)

Di Paola Redemagni

Un banco in Duomo, un palco alla Scala e una tomba al Monumentale sono i simboli del successo per gli imprenditori milanesi dell’Otto e Novecento. Ferdinando Bocconi, dopo aver inventato il primo grande magazzino italiano (1836) e l’Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi (1902), non poteva sbagliare l’ultimo appuntamento. Difficile non accorgersene: 20 metri di tomba in granito bianco proprio all’ingresso del Monumentale. Quattro colonne monolitiche, le grandi sculture liberty della Speranza, del Dolore, della Maternità, della Rassegnazione e della Religione. Al centro, sopra il ricco basamento decorato, l’imponente Cristo in croce contornato da angeli.

(Dear friends speaking english, this is an home-made blog. I have no money to pay a professional translator, so I write english post by myself and – as you can see – I can’t write English language very well. So you can find a lot of mistake in the articoles: I beg your pardon. My English language level is: F(unny)! Will you pardon me?)

In Milan, during the 19° and earlier 20° century, if you were a businness man of success, you needed a pew in the Cathedral, a box at Scala Theatre and a tomb at Cimitero Monumentale. So did Ferdinando Bocconi (1836-1908), the founder of Rinascente (1836), the first department store in Italy and today a temple of the fashion. In 1902 he founded Luigi Bocconi University too, one of the most famous in the business word. Bocconi’s tomb is impressive: it’s 20 meters high, with four monolithic columns, and some very big sculptures in liberty style: Hope, Paine, Motherhood, Resignation, Religion. In the middle, on a rich basement, Christ on the cross and some angels.