Line 4: San Babila station
Archaeological excavations in the northern section of Corso Europa
Archaeological surveys
In the course of the final design for the San Babila station on the future Line 4, an archaeological excavation was started in the northern part of Corso Europa, under the scientific direction of the Supervisory Authority for the Archaeological Heritage of Lombardy.
Roman Period
In Roman times, between the end of the 1st century BC and the last decades of the 3rd century AD, the area corresponded to a strip of the immediate north-eastern suburb. It was characterized by the abundance of water, as evidenced by several discoveries of wells and land drainage systems (empty jars arranged horizontally or upside down, buried pilings etc.). At the end of the 3rd century, the whole area was incorporated within the town perimeter, the imposing walls built in the age of the Tetrarchy (293-305 AD), when Milan became one of the seats of the imperial court. It was a time of great splendour, which is reflected in works of urban redevelopment; one majestic example is the Herculean Spa, the remains of which have been documented several times in the past in the area between Corso Vittorio Emanuele II and Corso Europea (the buildings were located in Largo Corsia dei Servi square).
Medieval, Renaissance and modern period
During the 20th century, the area now occupied by Piazza San Babila has undergone major transformations. In the plan produced by Giovan Battista Clarici (circa 1570) there are churches that faced a small, triangular square, between the wide road coming from Piazza Duomo (corresponding roughly to the present Corso Vittorio Emanuele II) and Corso Venezia. As in other Italian cities, the years of Fascism resulted in genuine revolutions in the urban fabric of Milan: leading names such as Giovanni Muzio and Gio Ponti took part in the competitive tender for implementation of the new urban development plan, but in the end the plan drawn up in 1934 by the engineer Caesar Albertini was adopted. Its main purpose seems to have been to redevelop virtually the whole City. The demolition works for the opening of Corso Europa, started in 1938, led inter alia to the destruction of the so-called Venetian houses, two mansions built around 1860 in the Venetian style. After the Second World War, the 1953 urban development plan involved further invasive interventions to expand the road system of the area and make it more easily accessible to traffic. The excavations revealed the remains of the cellars of the buildings demolished for the opening and widening of the street; this shows that the construction of these mansions almost completely ruined the stratification: the floors of the basements should have been about 3 metres below the existing road. Conversely, in one area that was probably a courtyard, there still remains a small strip of the medieval stratification.