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- Art & Culture
The Red Oak of Porta Ticinese
There are two monuments that characterise Piazza XXIV Maggio, one architectural and one arboreal: Porta Ticinese and the big red oak.
For almost a century, Milan's most famous monumental tree, with its elegance and grandeur, has kept company with one of the six historic city gates.
Porta Ticinese, which today appears to us in a neoclassical style after the reconstruction completed in 1814, also gave its name to the district behind it. The centre of Milan was formerly divided into six areas called sestieri, one for each gate along the walls. The magnificent red oak (Quercus rubra), now supported by a special metal pyramid that guarantees its stability, is a green monument of high landscape and cultural value. It is also a familiar landmark in such a lively area as the Darsena and Navigli.
At 18 metres tall and with a trunk circumference of more than 5 metres (diameter 162 cm), it has a particularly expansive crown. The tree, born at the end of the 19th century, was planted on 24 May 1924 a few steps from Porta Ticinese, together with a memorial stone, in memory of the fallen of the Great War. Together with the gate, on which the Latin inscription 'paci populorum sospitae' ('to the liberating peace of peoples') can be read, they form a scenic pair of monuments that ideally serve as a warning against any form of war.
A green monument that is accessible to the public.
