The history of ‘Impresa di costruzioni Ing. A. Morganti’ (from 2012 ‘Morganti Impresa di Costruzioni S.p.A.’), is closely intertwined with the history of construction in Italy throughout the 20th century, giving life and completion to many major projects involving houses, roads, industries and, their speciality, prefabricated structures. For this reason above all they came into contact with the Caprotti family, first for the Albiatese textile factory, then for Esselunga.
THE MORGANTS
The company was founded in 1905 by Alfonso Morganti (1873-1927), an engineer and builder; his brother Antonio managed the family textile business. Starting in the 1920s, Morganti, until then dedicated only to houses, participated in the construction of the Milan-Laghi, Brescia-Bergamo and Milan-Turin motorways. For the Milan-Laghi, inaugurated in 1924, Morganti built the bridge over the Olona River in the Milan-Busto Arsizio section, one of the first examples of reinforced concrete infrastructure of the period and one of the key works of the world’s first toll motorway system.
Alfonso died in 1927, while his son Renato was still a student; he would take over his father’s company, which until then had been run by a procurator, after graduating in architecture and engineering from the Milan Polytechnic in 1931. The following year he married Ada Baggio and from this marriage his two sons Alfonso (1935 – 2017) and Tono (1939 – ) were born.
With Renato, Morganti definitively entered the Olympus of builders: between 1931 and 1934 he built half of the large Niguarda hospital complex, in 1932 he excavated the rock to prepare the site for the future Gaslini Institute in Genoa, and in 1943 he excavated the bomb shelter in Milan’s Piazza del Duomo, which was to become a shopping mall after the war, not to mention the interventions in all the main factories in Lombardy, Magneti Marelli, Pirelli, Carlo Erba, Franco Tosi, and the execution of buildings that remain familiar to us for a long time, such as the entrance pavilion at the Milan Trade Fair in Piazza Giulio Cesare (1947) and the arrivals and departures area of Malpensa Airport (1953-1954).
“In 1962 Morganti joined MBM (Meregaglia-Balency-Morganti) for the construction of entirely prefabricated residential complexes (Olmi district in Milan). 1965 saw the start of a period of major works in Sardinia, first for Snia in Villacidro (Vs) and later for Saras in Sarroch (Ca) and other industries. The company’s headquarters were moved in 1966 from Via Cossa to Via Barozzi, where it remained until 2000 when it was relocated to Via Canzio. From 1960 to 1969, Mr Morganti was a member of the governing bodies of Assimpredil, of which he was president between 1960 and 1963. In Assolombarda, he was a member of the Presidential Committee from 1961 to 1971′. (‘STRAMBIO DE CASTILLA, Assimpredil si racconta’).
Renato Morganti also worked closely with the cultural heritage administration, carrying out and personally directing numerous restoration projects on churches and monuments, including the Milanese church of S. Pietro in Gessate and Masolino’s Baptistery in Castiglione Olona. A poet in his own right and a talented engraver, he holds several personal exhibitions, the proceeds of which are always donated to charities.
THE CAPROTTI AND MORGANTI
“In the post-war period, the Morganti company was very active in road works and the construction of industrial plants, particularly for the textile industry. Thanks to a job for Manifattura Caprotti in Albiate, Renato forged a solid relationship with the Caprotti family, which entrusted Morganti with the construction of numerous supermarkets for the Esselunga chain throughout Italy. Specialisation in department stores also allowed Morganti to work for Rinascente and Upim (“STRAMBIO DE CASTILLA, Assimpredil si racconta”). However, Morganti’s collaboration is not limited to this: many of the buildings in the large Esselunga headquarters complex in Limito are constructed by them, and seeing the photographs of the slow development of the structures, carefully recorded in the books that the company itself prepares as a gift/advertisement for customers always generates a certain emotion.
Renato’s successor, his son Alfonso, became a friend of my father Bernardo, who, among other things, convinced him to finance the renovation of the rustic Pac (the Pavilion of Contemporary Art in Milan), reborn to a design by Ignazio Gardella, a great architect who was also a friend of Bernardo’s and who designed some of the Esselunga shops; inaugurated in 1954, the PAC has since then been one of the most prestigious venues for contemporary art. It would then be Alfonso who one day, “while we were walking in Via Manzoni in Milan (…) spoke to me of facts that only I should know”, fuelling the suspicion I already harboured of having my phone and mobile phone tapped, in the months when the darkest period of my life was beginning (CAPROTTI, “Le Ossa dei Caprotti”, p. 277).
Alfonso’s brother, Tono, an architect of international renown and, from 1989 to 2009, chairman of the board of directors of the Morganti company, also collaborated with my father, but at a certain point he treated him very badly; since then the architect has always refused to have relations with him.
I knew all three of them, Renato, Alfonso and Tono. The latter was a great friend of my mother Giorgina, and she also knew his brother, my uncle Beppo Venosta. Mum and Tono were, among other things, neighbours for many years, as Morganti was based in the beautiful building she had built in the early 20th century on Via Barozzi, a stone’s throw from Via Vivaio where my mother lived with Guido Somarè. Also on Via Vivaio was the Venosta house, bought by mygreat-grandfather Giuseppe, where mygreat-uncle Gigi, brother of my grandfather Guido Venosta, still lived.
I liked Tono very much; the last time I heard from him was in 2021, when my mother passed away.
Alfonso had given me two enamels, artistic works by his father Renato, which I cherished.
Bibliography:
G. CAPROTTI, “Le Ossa dei Caprotti. Una storia italiana’, Milan 2024/3.
“Impresa di costruzioni Ing. A. Morganti s.a.s. Anno di fondazione 1905. Civil, road, industrial construction and prefabricated structures”, Milan, September 1970.
A. STRAMBIO DE CASTILLA, ‘Assimpredil si racconta… Institutional bodies 1960-1963 – Biography President – Renato Moganti‘, updated January 2009.
M. GREGORETTI, “Alfondo [sic] Morganti I remember him like this“, in “Dedalo. Regenerating Cities” 2017 issue 8.
“Tono Morganti“, entry in “DePadova”.
MORGANTI COSTRUZIONI S.p.A., profile on LinkedIn.
