Milan's historic Odeon cinema to become luxury shopping center

Milan's historic Cinema Odeon, Italy's first multiplex, will close on August 1, 2023, to be converted into a luxury shopping center. The cinema, located at via Santa Radegonda near the Duomo, opened on November 26, 1929, with the film "La spedizione del Barone Franchetti in Dancaglia." The building's history dates back to 1803 when a wooden theater for puppet shows and dialect comedies stood on the site. In the 1880s, the area housed Europe's first thermoelectric plant, operated by Edison, which powered La Scala's 1883 opera season with nearly 3,000 incandescent lamps. The plant was demolished in 1926, and between 1927 and 1929, the Pittaluga family commissioned architects Giuseppe Laveni and Aldo Avati to build a residential building with a theater and cinema in the basement and ground floor. The Art Deco cinema featured a monumental entrance with giant columns, friezes, and statues. Damaged during bombings in August 1943, it reopened in early September, temporarily hosting concerts by the Teatro alla Scala orchestra. In 1986, acquired by the American Cannon group, it became Milan's first multiplex. In 2009, it passed to The Space group. The redevelopment, designed by Progetto Cmr for Fondo Aedison managed by Dea Capital Real Estate sgr, will reduce the number of screens from ten to five, preserving architectural elements like the polychrome marble foyer and the historic hall with the inscription "Ex tenebris vita." Reopening is scheduled for 2024.