Piazza del Duomo in Milan says goodbye to palm trees and banana trees and welcomes the new Oasi Zegna with rhododendrons and Philadelphus in the name of seasonality and biodiversity. Zegna has officially handed over the flowerbeds of the square to the city, which it will sponsor as part of a three-year project, with the aim of creating a green space inspired by the Oasi Zegna, a natural territory that extends for 100 square kilometers in the setting of the Biella Alps, in Piedmont.
In fact, at the beginning of the last century, Ermenegildo Zegna undertook a vast reforestation program in the mountainous area around his wool mill which today has over 500 thousand trees.
"I didn't mind the palm trees, but Milan is a changing city - commented the mayor Giuseppe Sala -, I think it was really right to change. Now we'll see how camphors, rhododendrons and other shrubs will be taken over by the Milanese. I think it's good." The new green spaces in Milan "mark the beginning of an ambitious project that will transform into an initiative on a global scale - announced Gildo Zegna, president and CEO of the Ermenegildo Zegna Group -, with the creation of new Zegna Oases around the world Our responsibility as entrepreneurs is to support our country and Made in Italy but we must also take care of the beauty of our territory."
The project for the new flowerbeds in Piazza Duomo is inspired by Dino Buzzati's 1957 painting, 'Piazza del Duomo Milano', from which a dialogue between city and nature emerges. Botanists and landscape architects have worked to bring to Milan some characteristic elements of the Biellese Alps in the four groves that make up the base of the Oasis, with uneven-aged bush camphors, evergreen and leafy plants. Among the groves there are also plants subject to rotation, rhododendrons in autumn and late spring and Philadelphus from the end of rhododendron flowering, to ensure respect for biodiversity and seasonality, which will be replanted in Oasi Zegna at the end of the cycle.