A welcoming and inclusive place in the Monza Park
Cascina Costa Alta today is a multifunctional center managed by the META Onlus Social Cooperative which hosts educational and autonomy courses, a hostel, a bar restaurant, as well as parties and events. A microcosm made of bricks, wood and stone, which encloses in its meadows and woods that vision of a welcoming and inclusive community that META has been helping to build since 1991.
Let’s take a few steps back to discover the history of this enchanting place located at the northern end of the Monza Park, a stone’s throw from the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza.
Cascina Cosa Alta, from the early nineteenth century, formerly the Royal Stable, is located between the gates of Biassono and Santa Maria delle Selve and features compositional typologies of stately villas.
The building, characterized by three buildings around a rustic courtyard, is located in the northern area of the park, between a wooded area and a lookout that extends over a large grassy parterre. The project was developed by Giacomo Tazzini around 1824, when he took over the direction of the works in the Park after having worked alongside the Canonica for 8 years.
Cascina Costa Alta, designed by the architect Giacomo Tazzini at the beginning of the 1920s, in the role of “Architect of the Royal Buildings”, has a facade with arched windows and a crowning tympanum that recalls the compositional typologies of stately villas, completed by lookout. Due to the beauty of the main facade and the elevated position, which offered a view of a pleasant panorama, it was portrayed in the etchings of the Lose couple in the collection dedicated to the Promenade dans le Parc Impérial et Royal et les Jardins de Monza.
The building, characterized by three buildings around a rustic courtyard, has a rectangular central body and symmetrical and square wings. The main front has a portico with six stone columns on the ground floor which leads, through a central staircase, to two rooms on each side, one of which is equipped with an oven. Under the portico an old stone well is visible on the right, while on the left side the structure has a masonry structure. Renovated in 2015 following the resolution of the municipal council, Cascina Costa Alta now houses a youth hostel, with a multipurpose room on the first floor overlooking the surrounding meadows and a restaurant bar.
