ACMilan

San Siro has 'no cultural interest' and can be demolished. Sorry, what?

27-Oct-2020 16:38:04 | The Guardian

The Italian heritage authority has no objections to San Siro being flattened. They don’t know their history

By Martin Dunlop for The Gentleman Ultra

The Italian heritage authority concluded earlier this year that San Siro has “no cultural interest” and can be demolished. Milan and Inter have been proposing a new stadium for a while, but surely they would rather refurbish than demolish. Apparently not. Although some parts of the ground may be retained as a landmark in a new sports and entertainment district, the stadium itself is likely to be replaced with a brand new 60,000-seat arena. Moving to a state-of-the-art and, crucially, club-owned ground hardly did Juventus any harm, but knocking down San Siro would be like flattening a cathedral.

The stadium takes its name from the San Siro district, which sits three miles north-west of Milan city centre. It opened in 1926 and, in its earliest days, consisted of four separate stands. San Siro hosted three matches at the 1934 World Cup, which Italy won. Originally owned by Milan, the ground was sold to the city in 1935. Ten years later, Inter joined Milan in playing their matches at San Siro, which, by this point, had been redeveloped to consist of one fully enclosed tier.

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