To Top
Hidden City

The Secret Garden

The Martesana canal transformed into a flowered garden

Saturday morning the city, sleepy and more quiet than usual, allows us – walking around in the calmer streets – to keep our heads in the clouds, to walk distractedly and rest our elbows on a little bridge… and then looking underneath discover that, where there was once water, now there is a rich and well manicured secret garden.It’s so beautiful that you’d think it’s accessible to a select few.

The temptation is too strong, we want to know more, we want to enter and enjoy this reserved corner. We scan with our eyes to find the entrance and in front of us is a stairway with an open gate. Before we can blink our eyes we are under an umbrella of petals and surrounded by happy dancing bees and butterflies. The fenced bushes protect flowers and plants of various colors.

A tiny path beside the greenery guides along what used to be the basin of the Martesana canal, now transformed into a flowered garden. The basin still has the big double doors in wood, falling apart by now, but identical to the ones drawn by Leonardo in the Atlantic Codex, preserved in the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana in Brera.

Leonardo was extremely fascinated by water and began studying the canals immediately after his arrival in Milan. Along with Giuliano Guasconi, hydraulic engineer at the court of Ludwig the Moor, he elaborated a system of basins that was supposed to solve the problem of the uneven level between the Naviglio Grande (lower) and the Naviglio Martesana (higher). That genius of Leonardo devised an improvement system for the closure mechanisms with the insertion of an inferior door which guaranteed a gradual opening from the water pressure, allowing a better control of water pressure. The autographed design is in the Atlantic Codex, dating to 1506 – 1513.

We pass a careful eye over the Ponte delle Gabelle (Bridge of the Gabelle) – named after the fact that the boatmen paid a tollhouse – and we exchange looks with the little ones that now live in the basin. It’s time to retrace our steps. In the end we discover that the recreational center for the elderly is just around the corner. How can you help thinking that someone very wise designed something so beautiful?

We can't. That's why every week we share the best experiences milan has to offer.

You may be also interested in...

Clotilde Brera

Piazza San Marco 6, 20121 Milano

Do you dream of a magical atmosphere suspended in time in the heart of Milan? Do you want to taste traditional Milanese dishes revisited in a modern way? Clotilde Brera, a bistro from the Mazzefferro family, is the perfect place for you. We found it in via Galielo Galilei, near Piazza San Marco, and immediately fell in [...]

The Rainbow Quarter

You can let yourself be conquered by the majesty of the Duomo. You can be enraptured by the windows of Montenapoleone, the Quadrilatero della moda or the sumptuous Vittorio Emanuele Gallery. Enjoy a picnic in Parco Sempione or delve into the museums of Palazzo Reale or the Pinacoteca di Brera. Whatever habit, luxury or activity [...]

Mandarin Oriental, Milan

Via Andegari, 9 20121 Milano

Explorers, leaders, emperors: the charm of the East has always greatly attracted the western world. The prestigious group of five-star luxury hotels, Mandarin Oriental, has decided to revive this trend by spreading the typical philosophy of the lands from which it originates. And a city like Milan, always at the forefront in terms of news [...]

Così fa Antonino Esposito

Via Solferino 27, 20121 Milano

When you search for "pizza" on Google, you get about a million and a half results, featuring stories and tales that try to retrace the food's history. The one most imprinted in the collective mind of all Italians is the story of Neapolitan pizza maker Raffaele Esposito. In the late 1800s, Esposito presented Queen Margherita [...]

forte forte

Via Ponte Vetero 1, 20121 Milano

I recently experienced more proof of the close link between art and fashion: a union that almost ends up becoming an identity. I was walking in Via Ponte Vetero, in the heart of Brera, in one of my favorite areas of Milan, that sort of small romantic-looking village. I stopped in front of the shop windows of [...]

Bombarded daily by information of all kinds, transmitted by an ever-increasing number of communication tools, we sometimes look for a simplification, a reliable source, a guide. Flawless Milano was born from this need, and tells the best experiences to have in Milan with style, precision and personality.

Copyright © 2024 Flawless Living s.r.l. - Via Copernico 8 - 20125 Milano - PI 08675550969