The new thermal baths arrive in Milan. The residents of the Lombard capital will therefore have an alternative to the already beautiful QC Termemilano wellness centre, but those in charge of the new project, winner of the Reinventing Cities tender, promise a totally different environment, in a fairytale context and – above all – inserted inside of an urban regeneration context.
According to the papers, in fact, the largest Italian spa complex will soon open in a large city, the construction site for which is set up in the former De Montel stables in the San Siro area. According to insiders, these will be the “real” thermal baths of Milan, as they will be fed by natural water with a high sulphide content, in the groundwater of the so-called “rotten water” which reaches as far as Parco Sempione. The water will be taken at a depth of 250 meters thanks to an existing well 350 meters deep, which will subsequently be heated.
The project has a truly evocative name: it will be called “thermal theatre” and will be the first European thermal complex with zero CO2 emissions. In all there will be no less than 800 square meters of indoor and outdoor pools, fed by sulphurous water, but the total area dedicated to wellness, including an urban park, will be 16,200 square meters, and will include saunas, swimming pools, relaxation and 2400 square meters of internal courtyards.
According to the work schedule, all the structures and the urban park will have to be completed in 2023, so that it can be inaugurated to the public at the latest at the beginning of 2024.
The project and the construction site
The new thermal baths of Milan began their adventure in September 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, when the municipality of Milan signed the preliminary sales contract with the company responsible for the project. The definitive start to the works comes at the beginning of 2021, when the final contract was signed.
But not everything was resolved, as the Via della Superintendenza was awaited, given that the building where the spa complex will be built is a beautiful Art Nouveau building dating back to 1915, subject to monumental restrictions. Fortunately, the bureaucracy was sorted out in a short time, and the project officially started: a few months later, the cleaning of the area, the reclamation, the demolition of unsafe parts began and finally the rubble was cleared.
The actual building site was started during the summer, and the works for the construction of the foundations are currently underway.
The De Montel stables
The new thermal complex in Milan will be built inside an elegant and prestigious building, the luxurious (at the time) former De Montel stables, born in the early twentieth century in the San Siro area at the behest of the banker Giuseppe De Montel.
Indeed, in the 1930s, San Siro was really full of stables and horse farms. Unfortunately, with the advent of fascism, De Montel – of Jewish origin – was forced to sell everything.
The former stables are located right next to the Meazza stadium, precisely on the corner between via Achille and via Fetonte and today, after the golden years of the early 20th century, they are in a state of total abandonment and decay, so much so that they are often center of news cases for illegal occupation.
The thermal baths of Milan will therefore have a twofold objective: if on the one hand they intend to give tourists and residents a space in which to enjoy peace, relaxation and well-being, on the other they are at the center of yet another urban redevelopment project which has been affecting the the architectural and building life of the city.
