More lions, this time winged

A delightful snarling winged lion for you from the back of the Stazione Centrale (central train station)...More......

Even the mere fact of centralizing the train traffic at one station was contested, towards the beginning of the 19th century, when this new station first was planned. If you are familiar with Milan, you'll know that this station is at the end of a very long and broad boulevard, like a long piazza with grand streets running up and down and across it. What you may not know is that the smaller prior train station, in the traditional beaux arts style, was approximately at the other end of this "piazza."

Ulisse Stacchini's project of 1912 won the competition for the new station, but the project was shelved due first to feet-dragging and then to the outbreak of WWI and the post-war troubles, including the rise of Fascism, which imposed an apparent peace, so the project was begun in 1927. The original Eclectic mix of Babylonian, Egyptian, Classical and Art Deco Influences was touched up with Fascist symbols, and completed in 1931.

The original entrance, very smart, was under an enormous portico, so people getting off and on vehicles to-ing and fro-ing wouldn't be subjected to the elements. One of the much more recent ways into and out of the most recent of the three subways (the yellow line) also was brought up under this portico.

Too bad that, in the most recent overhaul (heavily criticized and criticizable...that for another day), greed has prevailed, and that area has been dedicated, yes, to moving sidewalks from below, but one is forced to pass through shopping areas to get to them, and the cars and taxis, which used to come up under the protective portico so handily, now have to drop their hapless passengers off to one side, or the other, where there is a portico...but which doesn't go all the way to the station's entrances...duh...put your thinking cap on, architects! (Just WHAT were they thinking???!)

I love the sculptures on this building, so I snapped this shot with you in mind on May 23, 2011, at almost noon. Lovely day and a steady hand, so the shot came out nicely with the zoom, even without a tripod.

In case you'd like to make a needlepoint, or cross-stitch, of this lion, or even knit it, here's a link to my needlepoint blog: http://arsacupicturaestellae.blogspot.com/2011/05/milan-monday-31ahemon-tuesday-more.html.

Enjoy!