canals of the area of Italy near Milan

REstoration feature REstoration feature

For a change of scenery, we’re taking a look at a set of old canals dating back to For a change of scenery, we’re taking a look at a set of old canals dating back to

Going Internazionale...

“The restoration of the historic canals of Milan has stalled”, I said gloomily in a an otherwise upbeat piece about waterway restoration in mainland Europe which formed a small part of my editorial column in Navvies 303. Well if you’re wondering what that chomping noise is that you can hear... yes, it’s the familiar sound of the Navvies editor

Locarno

Lake Maggiore Lake Como eating his words again...

My piece in Navvies 303 was prompted by the arrival of the autumn issue of World Wide Waterways, the magazine of Inland Waterways International (IWI), with a whole swathe of good news stories about canals reopening (or even new ones being created) in France, Finland, Serbia and the Netherlands. But one scheme that didn’t appear to be making any progress was the plan to

The Navigli of Milan

and connections

Lecco

River Ticino Como

One new lock built on River Ticino, others will need to be restored

4 2 Sections shown in red have been culverted but are proposed for restoration River Adda

Trezzo sull’Adda

Tornavento

Naviglio di Paderno built to bypass rapids on River Adda. Proposed for restoration River Ticino(unnavigable) MilanNaviglio Grande (navigable) Darsena basin Two locks Cercia Interna (inner ring canal) Naviglio Martesana proposed for restoration Naviglio Bereguardo (not proposed for restoration) Pavia Naviglio Pavese restored at Milan end 6 River Adda(unnavigable)

Navigable to the Adriatic

River Po

The Navigli of Milan The Navigli of Milan

Leonardo da Vinci’s time - which might just have a bright future ahead of them... Leonardo da Vinci’s time - which might just have a bright future ahead of them...

reopen some of the mediaeval waterways which once linked Milan, the River Po, and the great lakes reaching up to the border with Switzerland.

Well, six months on and the spring issue of the same magazine has hit the doormat and - guess what? - there’s good news on the Milan system. So why not run a rather different Navvies restoration feature?

History: building the Navigli

was more to bring water supplies to the city than for cargo, but once completed in 1258 it wasn’t long before it was busy with boats carrying goods between Lake Maggiore and a basin on the edge of Milan called the Darsena. From 1386 it carried the stone for the famous cathedral. To get it right to where it was needed in the city centre, boats continued from the Darsena basin along a new connecting link to the city’s defensive moat, most of which was enlarged and made navigable as the Cerchia Interna (‘inner ring’). As The story begins in the 12th Century with this was at a higher level than the Naviglio Milan at a disadvantage compared to most Grande, temporary dams were inserted and major European cities: it wasn’t accessible by removed to adjust water levels to enable water. Nearly everywhere else of any decent boats to get between them. This time-consize was on the coast, on a river, or on a suming process was later replaced by two lake. But about 25-30km to the west of movable water control structures a short Milan, the River Ticino flowed southwards on distance apart - and bingo, the canal lock its way down from Lake Maggiore (aka Lake had been invented! OK, almost certainly reLocarno). And a similar distance to the east invented - there are reckoned to have alwas the River Adda, also flowing southwards ready been earlier ones in the Far East and from Lake Como. Some 40-50km south of probably elsewhere in Europe too. But this Milan, both of these rivers fed into the River one, known as Viarenna, was an early one. Po, which led all the way east to reach the Next came the 19km Naviglio di Adriatic Sea not far south of the Venice lagoon.

The Navigli were a series of canals which developed over several centuries, linking Milan to both of these rivers, and creating a regional navigable network. First came the Naviglio Grande, which ran south eastwards for 31km from the River Ticino near Tornavento to Milan. Begun as early as 1177, its Milan municipal photographic archive original purpose The successor to the early Viarenna Lock: now gone, but reinstatement proposed page 17

much so that it took 200 years from the start of construction in the late 16th Century before a bypass canal, the Naviglio di Paderna, was finally completed all of 3km long, with six locks. Lastly the icence Naviglio Pavese removed the need Paolo Monti, Cr eative Commons l for the inconvenient overland transhipment between the Bereguardo and the River Ticino by bypassing the Bereguardo enIn 1970 gravel barges were still unloading at the Darsena basin... tirely. Opened in 1819, it began at Bereguardo, equipped with 18 primitive flash- the Darsena basin in Milan, alongside the locks consisting of a single set of gates (later start of the Naviglio Grande, and descended replaced by 12 conventional locks) and com- via nine single locks and three staircase pairs pleted in 1470. It linked the Naviglio Grande in 33km to Pavia, where it joined a navigable to Bereguardo, not far from the limit of navi- length of the Ticino near its confluence with gation for boats coming up the Ticino river, the Po. Thus it finally completed the chain of from which goods (and sometimes small boats) navigable waterways from the River Po to were transhipped by land, making a commu- Milan, Lake Maggiore, and Lake Como. nication (albeit a not terribly convenient one) from Milan to the Po and the sea. History: decline and closure

Meanwhile to the east of Milan, the 38km Naviglio Martesana opened in 1457 Unsurprisingly, once it had been bypassed linking Milan to the River Adda at Trezzo the Naviglio de Bereguardo didn’t last long sull’Adda. It too was largely for irrigation, but before closing, but the rest of the network navigation was permitted initially on two survived into the 20th Century. days a week, and locks were built to lower it The system was split in the early 1930s from the level of the river to the outskirts of as a result of Milan’s planners taking the Milan. It too was linked by locks to the view that the inner ring was a barrier to Cerche Interna circuit, and therefore to the urban development and a health hazard. It canals on the west side of the city. And it’s was closed and culverted, breaking the link where Leonardo da Vinci got involved: al- between the Naviglio Martesana to the east though it’s not true (as sometimes claimed) and the Grande and Pavese on the west side. that he invented the canal lock, he was Around the same time the Paderno also appointed as Ducal Engineer from 1482, closed, cutting off Lake Como from the studied the hydraulic engineering of the Martesana, which lasted until 1958 before it existing Navigli, and developed technical too shut. That left just the Pavese, which improvements for the Martesana locks. closed to navigation in the 1960s, and the

Above Martesana, a steep and fast- oldest of them all, the Naviglio Grande, flowing length of the River Adda prevented which carried its last boatload of sand to the access to Lake Como, and bypassing it was Darsena basin in 1979. to prove tricky as a result of the steep But crucially, the Martesana, Grande change of level and unstable ground. So and Pavese were all retained for water supply. page 18

But then it all came to a bit of a standstill. The city decided that a cosmetic uncovPretty much as the Naviglio Grande was ering of parts of the inner ring was more carrying its final cargoes, there were propos- affordable than reopening to navigation, als to revive the network for leisure or herit- reopening of the Pavese stopped after two age reasons. In 1983 a tour by the Inland locks, and there didn’t seem to be a lot Waterways Association’s International Com- going on. Until now... mittee (a forerunner of IWI) met architect and canal campaigner Empio Malara, who was Restoration: where are we at? pushing for the restoration of the Viarenna lock (a replacement of the original one which linked As already mentioned the two locks at the the Naviglio Grande to the inner ring) as a Milan end of the Naviglio Pavese are restored historic feature. He founded an organisation and in working order, and you can charter a called the Amici dei Navigli (‘Friends of the boat that passes through them, but there are Canals’) which supported the reopening of 13 more locks to restore between there and both the Naviglio Grande and Naviglio Pavese, the Ticino, so it’s only possible to navigate a recreating the route from Lake Maggiore down short distance outside the city, although the to the Ticino - and achieving what seems fo channel is intact and in water. The Naviglio be the ‘Holy Grail’ of Italian canal restoration: Grande doesn’t have any locks except right navigation from Venice to the Alps. at its western end, and has been maintained

Another group, Riaprire i Navigli (‘Re- for water supply, so navigation is possible for store the Canals’) takes an even broader rather further from Milan, almost to the view: it sees its ultimate objective as reopen- upper River Ticino. The link to Lake Maggiore ing the complete network, including the via a length of the river will require the restoMartesana, the Paderno, and the connection ration / construction of several locks to bypass through Milan via the inner ring. weirs on the river, in addition to the one new

On the practical level, the first two locks lock already built as mentioned earlier. at the Milan end of the Naviglio Pavese - There has yet to be any restoration for Conchetta and Fallata locks - were restored navigation on the Martesana but it too is in and opened to navigation, while the partly water, the towpath has been opened us a infilled Darsena basin was re-excavated, and a cycleway / footpath (as have the towpaths of new lock was built by a hydroelectric dam on the Pavese and Grande) and one of the the upper River Ticino near Lake Maggiore. watermills alongside the Martesana locks has Plans were developed for reinstating the inner ring, with considerable sums of money put forward by the city council. And in a complete turnaround from the 1930s, canals which were hidden away because they were seen as a health hazard and getting in the way of urban planning are now seen as highly beneficial to the city and its people - the area around the Darsena is now a trendy ‘canal Martin Ludgate quarter’. ...but today the restored basin is at the heart of a popular ‘canal quarter’ page 19

been restored. There hasn’t been any work done on the Paderno either, but again it’s basically intact and a study has shown restoration to be feasible.

In the worst condition by far is the Cerchia Interna, the inner ring in Milan, which was culverted in the 1930s with little to be seen of it. The innermost length of the Martesana leading to the inner ring hasn’t fared much better.

Restoration: what next?

Until recently the answer might have been “we don’t know” or “not a lot, by the look of it”. But just recently things have been looking up. In December 2020 Milan’s mayor Beppe Sala revived interest in the scheme to reopen the city’s canals including the section of the inner ring linking the Naviglio Martesana to the Darsena basin. Pointing out that recreating a fully navigable 8km through route that’s largely disappeared wouldn’t be cheap at around •500m, he confirmed that the city had put in requests for support from the Italian Government’s Covid recovery fund and also from EU funds.

We won’t know if the bids have been successful until June 2021, and until then no work can take place. But if the bids do get approved, that would complete the restoration of the most difficult length by far of the entire network. And the city would be keen to complete it by 2026, when it is due to host the Winter Olympics.

Restoration: and then what?

If •500m can be secured to reinstate 8km of missing city waterway, opening up the rest of the system should be possible for a lot less. The Grande is already pretty much navigable; the Pavese, the Martesana and the Paderno are mainly in water with just the locks needing restoring, then there’s just the connecting lengths of the Ticino and Adda rivers to return to navigation, and we’ll be cruising from the Po to Milan - and from Venice to the Alps.

Martin Ludgate

For those interested in finding out more, try the Amici dei Navigli and Riaprire i Navigli websites, IWI’s World Wide Waterways magazine and Charles Hadfield’s book World Canals. For those not interested: don’t worry, we’ll be back to British canals in the next issue! Naviglio Pavese: restored lock and trip-boat at the Milan end and (below) staircase locks await restoration at the far end, River Ticino beyond

Martin Ludgate

ns licence e Commo Yorick39, Creativ