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Rebecchino

History of Milan
Milano Piazza Duomo verso il 1860, prima delle demolizioni
Milano Piazza Duomo verso il 1860, prima delle demolizioni

The Rebecchino was a historic neighborhood of Milan, Italy, located in the immediate surroundings of Milan's Cathedral, in what is now Piazza del Duomo. The neighborhood was demolished in the second half of the 19th century to allow for the thorough redesign of the piazza that led to its modern, monumental layout. Reportedly, the Rebecchino was named after an eponymous inn, dating back to the 16th century, which in turn took its name from the fact that its sign had a rebec on it. This inn was so well known that the word "rebecchino" (also spelled "rebechino") eventually came to mean "cheap hotel" per antonomasia.The first plans to demolish the Rebecchino date back to the Napoleonic rule of Milan, in the 18th century, when the modern Piazza del Duomo began to take shape. While the Cathedral and the surrounding piazza were supposed to become a symbol of the wealth of Milan, the Rebecchino clashed with this vision, as it was a chaotic agglomerate of old, decayed buildings; its narrow streets were populated by thieves and other evil-doers that would prey on the pilgrims visiting the Cathedral. The order for the demolition of the Rebecchino, along with that of the Coperto dei Figini (a portico dating back to the Renaissance, also in the area of the Cathedral) was formalized in 1810, but quarrels followed, and the neighborhood survived for several decades, somewhat like "an island" in the middle of the developing plaza. The area was eventually cleared on the occasion of German Emperor William I visiting Milan in 1875.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Rebecchino (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Rebecchino
1_33051, Milan Municipio 1

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N 45.4638 ° E 9.1895 °
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1_33051
20122 Milan, Municipio 1
Lombardy, Italy
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Milano Piazza Duomo verso il 1860, prima delle demolizioni
Milano Piazza Duomo verso il 1860, prima delle demolizioni
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Teatro Regio Ducale
Teatro Regio Ducale

The Teatro Regio Ducale (Italian, "Royal Ducal Theatre") was the opera house in Milan from 26 December 1717 until 25 February 1776, when it was burned down following a carnival gala. Many famous composers and their operas are associated with it, including the premieres of Mozart's Mitridate, re di Ponto, Ascanio in Alba, and Lucio Silla. The opera house also saw the premiere of Maria Teresa Agnesi Pinottini's Ciro in Armenia in 1753; one of the earliest successfully received operas by a female composer. The variant form Regio Ducal Teatro is also seen. The atmosphere in opera houses at the time was very sociable and congenial, and the Teatro Regio Ducale was no exception. The English traveller and music writer Charles Burney describes its faro tables for gambling, and gives this description: The theatre here is very large and splendid; it has five rows of boxes on each side, one hundred in each row; and parallel to these runs a broad gallery ... as an avenue to every row of boxes: each box will contain six persons, who sit at the sides, facing each other. Across the gallery of communications is a complete room to every box, with a fireplace in it, and all conveniences for refreshments and cards. In the fourth row is a pharo table, on each side of the house, which is used during the performance of the opera. After the destruction of the Teatro Regio Ducale, which had been a wing of the Palazzo Reale (Royal Palace), two new theatres were commissioned to be built near the site, both designed by Giuseppe Piermarini. The Nuovo Regio Ducal Teatro alla Scala (with variant forms of its name), the present-day La Scala, was inaugurated on 3 August 1778. The Teatro alla Canobbiana, now called the Teatro Lirico, was inaugurated on 21 August 1779.