Torre Velasca

The 1950s BBPR tower near the Duomo with its unmistakable mushroom silhouette — a top-heavy crown of concrete supported on angled struts, deliberately echoing the form of a Lombard medieval tower in modern materials. Loved and loathed in equal measure, it was a pointed rebuttal to international-style glass boxes, rooting its modernism in local history. It remains one of the most discussed buildings in Italy. For visitors, it's a key work of postwar Milanese architecture and a genuine oddity on the skyline — brutalist in mass yet medieval in spirit, standing just a short walk from the cathedral.