About us – a bit of history
Our family has been the owner of this building for many generations, protected and subject to the discipline of the Supervision of Fine Arts and Monuments of Milan.
Identified in the past as Piazza del Duomo 16, the property occupies six arches under the arcades, extending from the corner with Via del Popolo to the shop window at street number 33.
In 1909, in conjunction with the restoration of Piazza Ducale and its frescoes by the painters Casimiro Ottone and Luigi Bocca, the building was declared an asset of historical and architectural interest.
In the following years up to 1970, the grandparents Giorgio and Maura Biffignandi owned and managed our building.
The shops on the ground floor under the arcades and in the courtyard have been transformed over the years, following the socio-economic changes and the evolution of Vigevano and its square, finally leaving room for the shops of commercial brands. They hosted public places (Caffè dell’Unione), fabric shops (Modabella and Graziani), art galleries (Il Sagittario and Al Centro), hairdressers for women (Luigi) and for men (Giuseppe), newsstands, salts and tobacco shops, even the headquarters of a political party. Some of these traces of the past are still visible under the arcades and preserved in the basement.
In 1971 Luigi (Bigio) Biffignandi, who recently graduated in architecture from the Milan Polytechnic, decided to allocate the entire first floor as his professional studio, the BBS architectural firm founded with friends and fellow architects Aldo Baletti and Mario Scipolo and with the surveyor Silvio Zeni. Therefore he took care of restoring the entire building and renovating the first floor where the studio was located.
In 2005, another major renovation work updated all the systems and reconsidered the spaces of the building on the first and second floors in order to obtain seven large charming apartments overlooking the Piazza Ducale and the enchanting internal courtyard.
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