October 1934, ninety years ago the Duce solemnly inaugurated (for the second time, the first having taken place in 1933 when the building was not yet completed) the 23 March Gallery complete with a film crew in tow (watch the video of the Istituto Luce). The project was strongly supported by Roberto Farinacci based on a design by the engineer Mori. The news of the time defined him as “the largest civil building of a monumental nature built after the Middle Ages” (Rivista Cremona, October 1934); a construction that also managed to win the challenge with the Galleria di Milano in terms of size in proportion to the number of citizens. It was a city within the city with shops, offices, homes and a vast portion destined to the public walking. It was dedicated to March 23rd in memory of the date of foundation of the Fasci di Combattimento in 1919. The construction takes inspiration from the Roman imperial architecture, so dear to the Regime: the arches, the lines of the portico, the choice of marble and granite material, the monumental columns are reminiscent of Rome and its grandeur. There are 5 levels covered in different marbles, including red Baveno granite for the interior columns; the gallery is 75 meters long and 10 meters wide, with 130 meters of porticoes. Through a corner entrance from via Gramsci and the porticoes of Piazza Roma, the route of the gallery magnetizes visitors and takes them into the zenith light of the interior, created for the first time in Italy, with a glass block roof. The tower, more than 50 meters high, covered in travertine, dominates the complex, which has a neoclassical matrix, while the diagonal plan of the Gallery links the orthogonal fabric of the historic center. Basically it was supposed to be the pedestrian entrance to the planned Piazza Littoria (the current Piazza Stradivari). The gallery, for better or for worse, was a bit of a mirror of the changes the city went through both in the construction and customs fields. Perhaps it paid the price for having been an unrealistic project, part palace and part place of passage, without its own physiognomy, created after demolishing the historic luthiers’ block (with Stradivari’s house) in front of the small square of Saint Dominic.
Today most of the shops have left: the Pellegrini goldsmith’s shop, Diba clothing, another watch shop in the central area and another clothing shop still survive. The rest (apart from the closed shop windows especially on via Guarneri del Gesù) are all bars and food outlets. Even the area towards Corso Campi, in the premises that once belonged to Grom and Liu Jo, will be transformed after the summer into spaces for meals and aperitifs with the historic shop of “Ugo Grill” (which will however also maintain the premises in via Gramsci). Unfortunately, the problems of the Gallery are far from being solved: the unrealistic attempt to insert an artistic creation of the Po river into the ceiling of the central part, complete with navigation signs applied to the columns, did not serve to regenerate the ninety-year-old Gallery 25 Aprile ( the name changed with the Liberation). Pigeons continue to dominate, as do the dirt, the poor lighting (if we exclude what some shopkeepers do), the poor supervision, the difficulty of access and the lack of attendance (how nostalgic for the crowded “tanks” of a few decades does!). The two newsstands at the entrances have closed: one has already been removed, the other is awaiting demolition. In short, there is still a lot to do to relaunch this ninety-year-old. And while the Milanese one has remained and has become more and more the living room of Milan (with staggering rents but also with the biggest brands in the world), unfortunately despite the ambitions of the builders, the Cremonese gallery should really be rethought and relaunched with an overall project. Who knows, maybe the next administration will do it…
