Via Monte Napoleone
Storied shopping street of Neoclassical palaces turned into one of the world's priciest luxury boutique strips.
Location
About this audio guide
Via Monte Napoleone in Milan carries a name that traces back to a public pawnshop opened here in the seventeen eighties by Austria's ruling archduchess, Maria Theresa. The guide follows the street through Napoleon's occupation of the city, when it took his name, and through Austria's failed attempt to erase that name after his fall. For more than a century afterward, this stayed a place for people without money, not a place for spending it. Listen for how a street built to rescue fortunes came to be something else entirely.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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