Alziro Bergonzo Biography
Alziro Bergonzo (1906 - 1997) was an Italian architect and painter, an exponent of rationalism; born in Bergamo, but son of a Swiss architect of Piedmontese origins. In 1925 he enrolled in the Faculty of Architecture of the Polytechnic of Milan, graduating in 1933, becoming one of the most famous interpreters of the rhetorical and monumental aesthetics of the fascist regime, whose adhesion was convinced, disinterested and idealistic: proof was his participation as a unit leader in the Ethiopian Campaign. We can find his work not only in the city, but also in the province, given that he contributed to the construction of various "houses of the Fascio", including the most famous one located in Caravaggio (1935-37). Other assignments will concern private and industrial clients, including the Hotel Franceschetti at Passo della Presolana (1929), the Casa Pellegrini and the Casa del Balilla in Via Angelo Mai in Bergamo (1932), the Casa Trussardi (1945) and the Reggiani textile division (expansion) (1957-66). After the war he was purged from the professional register for political reasons, but already in 1946 he won a competition for the redevelopment of the Venice Lido and was reinstated, thus becoming an important exponent of twentieth-century architecture, recognized for his caliber even today . He was also active in Rome and Milan, where he moved his studio in 1945. Other commissions he received were the Teatro Manzoni in Milan, the Sima industrial complex in Cornaredo, the Palazzo dei Congressi in Stresa, the church of Sant'Antonio in Rimini, a port work in Saudi Arabia and a theater in Cairo, Egypt.
