The Devil Abode

In Corso di Porta Romana 3, we can see Palazzo Acerbi, a palace owned by the senator and marquis Ludovico Acerbi. He was a well-off Milanese character and used to organise receptions, banquets and parties of great luxury.

Parties and gatherings well attended by the Milanese contrasted with one of Milan’s saddest periods, the spread of the plague in 1630 CE. The disease sowed death and sadness everywhere in the city’s streets while musical notes came out of the windows of Palazzo Acerbi to accompany parties and social gatherings.

Despite this outlandish and blatant lifestyle, no one present at the parties ever fell ill with the terrible disease, so the Milanese regarded the palace as the home of the devil.

What convinced the Milanese that the palace really was the devil’s abode was a bombing on 20 March 1848 during ‘The Five Days of Milan’, in which an Austrian cannonball hit the facade of Palazzo Acerbi, sticking into the wall and causing practically no damage. For the Milanese, this confirmed that only a wicked house could be immune to such calamities.

It is still possible today to see the cannonball stuck in the wall next to the first balcony to the right of the entrance door and a plaque bearing the event’s date.