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The former seminary Benedetto XV

A valuable piece of art of the 20th-century Italian architecture

The Codivilla-Putti research facility of the Rizzoli Orthopaedic Institute was established in the early 1980s in the former seminary “Benedetto XV”.

The seminary complex, built on the Barbiano hill, south of the city, was established in the mid-1960s, designed by architects Giorgio Trebbi and Glauco Gresleri. Actually, the complex planimetric definition, entrusted to Vittorio Morpurgo, changed the planning of the designers – small connected annexes, immersed into the green – defining a rather protected citadel, structured by two high, horseshoe-shaped bodies (a sort of bastion town).

In the early 1980s, the seminary was purchased by the Rizzoli Orthopaedic Institute which, rearranging the internal spaces, set the administrative offices and the senior management headquarters, research laboratories and the group practice. Therefore, the complex was renamed Research Center Codivilla-Putti.

The complex is part of the approximately one thousand pieces of art selected in the “Guida all'architettura italiana del Novecento” (The 20th century Italian architecture guidebook), by Sergio Polano e Marco Mulazzani, published by Electa, Milan, 2004. The contents of the present webpage were based on the same guidebook (pp.314-315).

A photo exposition of the complex is shown below, both in its construction phase (mid-1960s) and in more recent time.

ex-Seminario Benedetto XV