Via Monte Napoleone - History

History

The street traces the Roman city walls erected by Emperor Maximian. In 1783 a financial institution known as the Monte Camerale di Santa Teresa opened here in Palazzo Marliani, with the function of managing the public debt. In 1786 the street itself was named after the monte. The bank was closed in 1796 but re-opened in 1804, when Milan was capital of the Napoleonic Italian Republic, as the Monte Napoleone: from this the street derived its current name. During the first part of the nineteenth century the street was almost entirely rebuilt in the Neoclassical manner with palaces inhabited by the highest of the aristocracy. Notable buildings from this period are the Palazzo Melzi di Cusano, the Palazzo Gavazzi, the Casa Carcassola, and the Palazzetta Tarverna. The much earlier Palazzo Marliani however, regarded as one of the finest houses to survive from the era of the Sforza, was preserved until its destruction during the Allied bombing campaign of 1943.

After World War II, Via Monte Napoleone became one of the leading streets in international fashion, somewhat equivalent to Paris' Rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honoré, Rome's Via Condotti, London's Bond Street or Oxford Street, and Florence's Via de' Tornabuoni.

Caffè Cova, founded in 1817 and one of the city’s oldest cafés and confectioners, relocated to Via Monte Napoleone in 1950 from its original premisses next to the Teatro alla Scala.