Bovisa is a district of Milan, located in the northern part of the city. It belongs to Zone 9, and is physically bounded by the tracks of the Gronda Nord light rail transit system, which runs around much of the district’s area. The district takes its name from an old farm of the Corpi Santi of Porta Comasina called Cascina Bovisa, around which an agricultural village formed which was later incorporated into Milan in 1873. The district is cut into two areas by the Ferrovienord route, which runs north-south. The railway can only be crossed on foot and not by car, via the Bovisa station access stairs; this has resulted in the independent development of the two areas since the construction of the railway.
Bovisa was the location for the premises of Milano Films, which remained in operation as a production company until 1926 and as a business until the mid-1930s.
Having also developed as an industrial outer zone of Milan with the Candiani plant, which was established in 1882 for the manufacture of sulphuric acid and later became part of the Montecatini chemical group, it gradually attracted numerous other businesses. The success of these companies was partly due to the rail sidings built at Bovisasca, an area adjacent to the existing station and the Parco Librera and Milano Simonetta yards, linked with the Ferrovie dello Stato railway.
These, and more, formed the core of a connection with the FS network, which over the years developed other points of contact, each one significant by type and area served.
Only at the end of the 20th century did the entire area fall into decline, due to the dismantling of many of the area’s industries, with the resulting deterioration halted in recent years by a proliferation of residential building projects and the redevelopment of some of the disused industrial buildings. Today, one of the biggest of these projects in this former industrial area, involves the site of a Politecnico di Milano campus: the city’s large facility for the production and storage of gas, now decommissioned and in the process of being demolished, has preserved its gasometers as an example of industrial archaeology, although plans for redevelopment are shaping new horizons and hitherto undreamt of scenarios.