Corso Buenos Aires
Encyclopedia
Corso Buenos Aires is a major street in north-eastern Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...

, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

. With over 350 shops and outlets, it qualifies as the most important shopping street of the city; it also features the highest concentration of clothings stores in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

. The architecture of the area is mostly late-19th and 20th Century style; the street and its surroundings are pointed with several neo-classical and art nouveau
Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau is an international philosophy and style of art, architecture and applied art—especially the decorative arts—that were most popular during 1890–1910. The name "Art Nouveau" is French for "new art"...

 buildings.

Location

Corso Buenos Aires is located in the north-eastern part of Milan, corresponding to the Zone 2
Zone 2 of Milan
The Zone 2 of Milan is one of the 9 administrative zones of Milan, Italy. In the "sunburst" geometry of the zones of Milan, Zone 2 is the slice that connects the centre to the periphery in the north-east direction....

 administrative division. It is about 1.2 km long, going roughly south-west to north-east, along the ideal line connecting Milan's centre at the Duomo
Duomo di Milano
Milan Cathedral is the cathedral church of Milan, Italy. Dedicated to Santa Maria Nascente , it is the seat of the Archbishop of Milan, currently Cardinal Angelo Scola....

 to the nearby city of Monza
Monza
Monza is a city and comune on the river Lambro, a tributary of the Po, in the Lombardy region of Italy some 15 km north-northeast of Milan. It is the capital of the Province of Monza and Brianza. It is best known for its Grand Prix motor racing circuit, the Autodromo Nazionale Monza.On June...

. The street itself starts at Piazzale Oberdan, in the Porta Venezia neighbourhood, and ends in Piazzale Loreto
Piazzale Loreto
Piazzale Loreto is a major town square in Milan, Italy.The name Loreto is also used in a wider sense to refer to the district surrounding the square, which is part of the Zone 2 administrative division...

. Going towards the city centre, the prosecution of Corso Buenos Aires is Corso Venezia
Corso Venezia
Corso Venezia is a street in Milan, Italy. It is one of the city's most exclusive and elegant avenue, being part of the city's upscale Quadrilatero della moda shopping district, along with Via Montenapoleone, Via della Spiga, Via Sant'Andrea and Via Manzoni...

, that reaches the very centre at Piazza San Babila, in the immediate surroundings of the Duomo. From the opposite end in Piazzale Loreto, three distinct streets depart, the main of which is Viale Monza, connecting Milan to Monza. The Milan Metro
Milan Metro
The Milan Metro is the rapid transit system serving Milan, Italy, operated by Azienda Trasporti Milanesi. Milan metro is the longest metro system in Italy, and is the core of the Milan Transportation System...

 subway (Line 1) has three stops along Buenos Aires (in Porta Venezia, Piazza Lima, and Piazzale Loreto).

Shopping

Due to the large number of shops, stores, and outlets, Corso Buenos Aires is one of the busiest streets of Milan; even more so during the Christmas holidays, when it sells most of the city's decorations. Unlike Via Montenapoleone
Via Montenapoleone
Via Monte Napoleone, also spelt as Via Montenapoleone, is an elegant and expensive street in Milan, Italy, famous for its ready-to-wear fashion and jewelry shops...

 and the surroundings of Piazza Duomo
Duomo di Milano
Milan Cathedral is the cathedral church of Milan, Italy. Dedicated to Santa Maria Nascente , it is the seat of the Archbishop of Milan, currently Cardinal Angelo Scola....

, that are specialized in high fashion and haute couture
Haute couture
Haute couture refers to the creation of exclusive custom-fitted clothing. Haute couture is made to order for a specific customer, and it is usually made from high-quality, expensive fabric and sewn with extreme attention to detail and finished by the most experienced and capable seamstresses,...

products, Corso Buenos Aires is generally more oriented towards mass products such as ready-to-wear
Ready-to-wear
Ready-to-wear or prêt-à-porter is the term for factory-made clothing, sold in finished condition, in standardized sizes, as distinct from made to measure or bespoke clothing tailored to a particular person's frame. Off-the-peg is sometimes used for items which are not clothing.Ready-to-wear has...

 type clothes.

History

The modern Corso Buenos Aires developed from the "stradone di Loreto", an old road connecting the centre of Milan to Monza. In the 19th Century, the road used to be called "Corso Loreto"; one of its prominent features was the Lazaretto
Lazaretto
A lazaretto or lazaret is a quarantine station for maritime travellers. Lazarets can be ships permanently at anchor, isolated islands, or mainland buildings. Until 1908, lazarets were also used for disinfecting postal items, usually by fumigation...

, which is also mentioned in Alessandro Manzoni
Alessandro Manzoni
Alessandro Francesco Tommaso Manzoni was an Italian poet and novelist.He is famous for the novel The Betrothed , generally ranked among the masterpieces of world literature...

's novel The Betrothed; it was demolished in the late 19th Century. Approximately in the same period, the horsecar
Horsecar
A horsecar or horse-drawn tram is an animal-powered streetcar or tram.These early forms of public transport developed out of industrial haulage routes that had long been in existence, and from the omnibus routes that first ran on public streets in the 1820s, using the newly improved iron or steel...

s that served this route were replaced by tram
Tram
A tram is a passenger rail vehicle which runs on tracks along public urban streets and also sometimes on separate rights of way. It may also run between cities and/or towns , and/or partially grade separated even in the cities...

s. In the mid-1950s the trams themselves were abolished and the railway dismantled, being replaced by the modern subway line.

Corso Buenos Aires used to be known for the numerous small shops selling traditional milanese products; however, these have been mostly replaced by modern fashion outlets. Likewise, some of the ancient buildings were replaced by modern, high-rise blocks of flats.

See also

  • Barbapedana
    Barbapedana
    Barbapedana is a word of uncertain origin that refers to a Milanese minstrel and cantastorie that sang in such places as trani...

    , a cantastorie
    Cantastoria
    Cantastoria comes from Italian for "sung story" or "singing history" and is known by many other names around the world. It is a theatrical form where a performer tells or sings a story while gesturing to a series of images...

    (minstrel) that used to play in the inns of Corso Buenos Aires and Piazzale Loreto in the late 19th century.
  • Trams in Milan
    Trams in Milan
    The Milan tramway network is an important part of the public transport network of the city and comune of Milan, in the region of Lombardy, northern Italy.In operation since 1876, the network is presently about long...

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