1946: Milan rises again at the Fair

There was excitement in the air in the aftermath of the war, the sense of a new beginning. Though battered by the devastation wrecked by bombing in 1943 and then Allied air raids, Milan was eager to get back onto its feet, embodying the spirit of its people. It was the start of a new era, heralded that year by two of the city’s leading institutions, La Scala and the Milan Fair.

The war had taken its toll on both the opera house and the fairgrounds. Now, bound by a time-honoured fellowship, the two institutions were busy seeking to rebuild and reopen. And that is what they did on 11th May and 12th September 1946—two key dates for La Scala and the Milan Fair, and for the cultural life and industrial fabric of the local area. 

It was evening and La Scala looked exactly like it always had—if not even finer. At the stroke of eight, its magnificent doors opened and the people flooded in. In their excitement, they spontaneously applauded, ecstatic and almost incredulous at being back in their beloved theatre, the temple of opera music. Never before had so many people gathered together at the opera house—the crowd packed the square and continued into the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, spilling out as far as the cathedral.

Milan waited with bated breath, trembling with anticipation. After 15 years of self-imposed exile in the USA, motivated by his opposition to the Fascist regime, the celebrated conductor Arturo Toscanini had returned to Italy to conduct the historic concert to reopen La Scala in Milan.

 That memorable concert symbolized, in its way, the rebirth of Milan and Italy as a whole in the post-war era.

A few months later, in July, Maestro Toscanini was busy supervising the acoustic tests for the new opera season. With his formal approval, the new season could officially open. On opening night, however, it was not at La Scala that the heavenly chorus of angels sang the prologue of Arrigo Boito’s Mefistofele conducted by Franco Ghione. 

Another very special venue had been prepared for the production—and with its 5,000 seats, it was the largest concert hall in the world. Newly-built for the occasion, the venue was the first pavilion to be reconstructed after the bombing of the Sports Pavilion at the Milan Fairgrounds. It was the same pavilion that in more recent times has been known fondly by Milan locals as the Palazzo delle Scintille.

Just a few months after La Scala, the Milan Fair reopened after the dark years imposed by the war. It was a comeback on both the practical and moral planes, marking the country’s definitive return to the world stage.

“It will be a great big event today for the Milanese—even greater, perhaps, than the reopening of La Scala and the inauguration of the Cova. The fair may be younger than these two glorious Milanese institutions, but it is no less dear to the big hopeful heart of the Milanese and their mercantile and Mittel-European temperament. 

‘See you again another year at the fair,’ the industrialists and businessmen of my town would say—a town that is not in Lombardy, indeed it is nowhere near Lombardy—without specifying the Milan Fair, because it would have been redundant to do so, as no other fair can compare.”

If the Milan Fair rose anew from its ashes, it was thanks to the Fair Board’s fearless president, Luigi Gasparotto. Born in Sacile, near Pordenone, in 1873, he practised as a lawyer until his election as a Radical Party MP in 1913. Re-elected repeatedly, in 1921 he was appointed president of the Fair Board while holding office as Minister of War in the Bonomi government.  

He would remain in politics for some fifty years, serving as an MP, government minister, House speaker, and senator, stepping back from public office only during the Fascist years to practice again as a civil and criminal lawyer. The regime did not make life easy for him, and his profound dislike of Mussolini and his laws led him to flee to Switzerland after 8th September 1943. However, with the Milan Fair back on its feet after the end of the war, he would remain president of the Board for the rest of his life.

It was a true feat of engineering and architectural savvy, built on the three cornerstone concepts of concentration, rationalism, and modularity—laying the solid yet flexible groundwork for all that the future might hold in store. With an investment of 345 million lire, the project was completed by no less than 5000 workers—many of whom rushed to greet Italy’s acting president, Ernesto De Nicola, during his official tour of the fair. 

The September and December 1946 issues of the Milan Fair’s official house organ, Ripresa delle Fiere, eloquently convey the spirit and nature of the fair in those years of reconstruction. The programme of events was austere, as befitted the moment, and the objectives set out by the Fair Board’s President Gasparotto were simple and straightforward. 

In short, they were to attract producers and consumers from all over the world, restore business connections, and confidently await “smarter and more far-sighted policies that invite people to come together on the common ground of international cooperation, to guarantee peace and protect jobs.”

Pride of place in the pavilions that year was taken by the mechanical engineering, furniture, furnishings, agricultural, textiles; clothing, and locomotive; transport industries. The business deals closed amounted to over 6.5 billion lire. Net of expenses, a profit of 119 million lire was booked. The fair was a success, with a generous sprinkling of devotion and hope. 

It cannot be denied that doubts and uncertainties remained—in particular as regarded the terms and conditions of the peace treaties, but also the recovery of world trade and the question mark on Italy’s effective production capacity. 

Yet, against the odds of the most pessimistic forecasts, and more legitimate fears, international exhibitors flocked to the fair, reflecting confidence in the recovery. The delegations that came from as far afield as France, Czechoslovakia, Switzerland, Belgium, Hungary, Poland, Brazil, and Russia showed that the gamble had paid off, allowing preparations to move forward on the 1947 Milan Fair.

What made the difference was the desire to own up not only to the defeats but also to the victories, those in the more peaceful arenas of industry and inventiveness. But the greatest achievement of all was the moral and material rehabilitation of the Italian people in the eyes of the world.