Porta Sempione

In 1807, Napoleon commissioned architect Luigi Cagnola to build a triumphal arch at the northern entrance to Milan, connecting the city to Paris through the Simplon Pass crossing the Alps. When the Napoleonic Kingdom fell and Milan was conquered by the Austrian Empire, the gate was not yet completed, and construction was abandoned. Construction resumed in 1826, for Emperor Francis II, who dedicated the monument to the 1815 Congress of Vienna. When Cagnola died in 1833, his project was taken over by Francesco Londonio and Francesco Peverelli, who completed it in 1838. The irony? The bas-reliefs on the monument depict scenes from the Battle of Leipzig, which led to Napoleon’s defeat, rather than pay testament to his military victories. On June 8, 1859, four days after the Battle of Magenta, Napoleon III and Victor Emmanuel II triumphally entered Milan through the gate. One arch. Two emperors. Thirty-one years between vision and inauguration.