World Expo 1906 Milan

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The city of Milan, seat of the next World Expo in 2015, is not new to a similar event. In fact the city hosted in 1906 an international exhibition, then recognized by B.I.E., bureau International des Exposition, as one of the first Expo.

The World Expo 1906 in Milan, known as the Great Expo of Work, born with the aim to make a great international exhibition regarding trasportation to inaugurate the recent raiway Paris–Milan, on the occasion of the completed Alpine Tunnel of Sempione.

Milan was national and international protagonist of the trade show activity, but the good occasion to show to the entire world the growing industrial Milan came with the construction of Alpin Tunnel of Sempione, a railway tunnel 20 km long that connected Milan to the great capitals of Europe. The Expo called "Nautical and Overland Trasportation" became a great event and hosted great representatives of agriculture, sciences and social environment, till to become the First Italian Universal Exposition.

The Expo was organised into 200 stands in a expositive surface (including Sempione Park and Piazza D'armi) of a milion of mq to the presence of approximately 10 milions of visitors from all over the world. Such as London and Paris, the Expo of 1906 in Milan left a sign with the construction of Civic Aquarium, that is, still today, one of the most representative buildings of the city.

The Expo in Milan ratified the economical and social rebirth of Milan, consecrating it as Italian industrial capital.