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Monte Stella Park is in the north-west part of Milan, namely in the QT8 district. Also known to the locals as “La Montagnetta di San Siro” or just “Montagnetta”, it is an artificial relief 164-ft high, built on the ruins left by the bombs of WWII and devised as part of a new neighborhood in 1947.

The green area designed by the Piero Bottoni and named after his wife Stella, was completed in the early 1960s: devised as a public park but embellished with trees only in 1971.
Until the 1990s, it was used for sports events, official parties, trade fairs, and shows. Due to the conditions of the park and some inevitable landslides, a recovery intervention has started, planting new trees arranged on the four levels of the hill. The slow way to the top features dirt roads, paths, and stairways.

In the park, there is the Church of Santa Maria Nascente, designed by Vico Magistretti, the Santa Maria Nascente Preschool designed by Arrigo Arrighetti, and in 2003 the most peculiar “Garden of the Righteous” (“Giardino dei Semplici”) was opened: every year, flowering cherry trees are named after people who have endangered their lives to save other human beings from racial persecution.
The church of Santa Maria Nascente was designed by Vico Magistretti. The park is not fenced.

Among the main tree species, there are Norway maple (Acer platanoides), boxelder maple (Acer negundo), sycamore maple (Acer pseudoplatanus), silver maple (Acer saccharinum), European nettle tree (Celtis australis), elm (Ulmus spp.), black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia), hornbeam (Carpinus betulus), northern red oak (Quercus rubra), silver birch (Betula pendula), cypress (Populus nigra “Italica”), lindens (Tilia spp.), European horse-chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum), beech (Fagus sylvatica), Norway spruce (Picea abies), black pine (Pinus nigra), London plane (Platanus x acerifolia), Atlas cedar (Cedrus atlantica), sophora (Sophora japonica), as well as flowering cherry trees. Particularly remarkable in size are several specimens of poplars and elms, as well as a sweet cherry tree (Prunus avium) in the Garden of the Righteous.

This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)