Urban metamorphosis: the white tram barely passed through Via Verbano, now Via Marcobi

Every Monday, with a virtual walk, the “Metamorfosi urbana” column tells you about the transformations that Varese has undergone in the last hundred years, since it became a provincial capital. The author is Fausto Bonoldi, a historic name in Varese journalism, who has also written a book on the subject, which he has been covering for years in the Facebook group La Varese Nascosta (Hidden Varese), published by Macchione, called “Dear Varese, how you’ve changed“.

 

Urban metamorphosis, episode three: the white tram barely passed in Via Verbano, now named after Walter Marcobi.

 

In 1841, the front of Corso Maggiore (then named for Vittorio Emanuele and nowadays dedicated to Giacomo Matteotti) that faced Porcari square (nowadays Monte Grappa square) was enriched with two fine buildings. The first, between the Corso and the narrow Vebano street (nowadays Marcobi street), was ordered by the jeweller Cova on the project of the architect Cattaneo, the second was commissioned by Arcangelo Bonazzola.

The two elegant buildings did not cross the finishing line of the century: the first that collapsed was the Bonazzola building, replaced at the end of the twenties by the fine Mascardi building (Pini café) designed by the engineer from Varese Camillo Lucchina.

According to the writer it is not as appreciable the building, designed in 1935 for the RAS insurance company by the architect Mario Loreti, that was erected on the area that was previously occupied by the Oreficeria Cova building, that in 1875 was purchased by Sebastiano Buzzetti, whose heirs continued the business under the porticos of the Corso until November 2011, four years after that the jewellery store was registered by the Region as one of the historic stores in Lombardy.

 

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Translated by Sara Francesca, Andrei Aldea

Reviewed by Prof. Robert Clarke