The firefighters arrive at the Cadorna barracks

After 22 years of abandonment, a training center

Legnano – The keys changed hands a couple of weeks ago, when the soldiers of the Ugo Mara barracks in Solbiate Olona handed them over to the Milan fire brigade. A few days later, the step was made official with the laying of a new padlock on the driveway overlooking Viale Cadorna, and above all with the posting of two signs: one on the gate on viale Cadorna, the other on that of via Risorgimento. The writing in large letters (obviously red) testifies that the landlord of the former Cadorna barracks is now the Fire Department.

Works in progress

It is still early to understand how the training center envisaged by the Ministry of the Interior will be developed, but in the meantime the department staff has taken possession of the building which covers a total surface area of ​​71 thousand square meters and has started the first cleaning of the area. On average once a week, the firefighters then show up to inspect the buildings and make sure there are no squatters or bivouacs inside. Which anyway22 years of abandonment of the barracks it never happened. The possibility of transforming the former barracks into a training center to which the firefighters of northern Italy could refer has been discussed since November 2022, when a first inspection by officials of the Ministry of the Interior had ascertained that the property in availability of the State Property was suited to the needs of the Department. Between saying and doing, however, there is a lot of water involved. The first, fundamental step was to define the intended use of the barracks as part of the local government plan currently being adopted.

The turning point in Pgt

In the past on the future of 71 thousand square meters between Cadorna and via Risorgimento various hypotheses had been made: a bit of residential, a sports hall, a security citadel where the new barracks of the Guardia di Finanza group could be built. However, always with the unknown that in the end the decision was up to the State Property Office, which even if perhaps it was never officially the owner of the barracks (it seems that the deed, dating back to 1939, was never registered), had nevertheless been a usufructuary of it for over sixty years. Last November the Municipality therefore changed the destination of the area, transforming it from a transformation area into a service area. A technicality that made it possible to reiterate the public function of the former barracks, paving the way for Rome’s projects. After five months, the firefighters are already at work.

Luigi Crespi

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