Vicolo Lavandai, Milan

Vicolo Lavandai is a Milan lane in the Navigli district, at Alzaia Naviglio Grande 14. Its enduring feature is a public washhouse, largely preserved after serving local laundry needs from the nineteenth century through the 1950s. The name refers to the male washermen who once worked here, organized through Milan’s Lavandai confraternity.

Look at the wooden kneeling boards beneath the shelter and the stone stands beside them: workers rinsed clothes in a narrow stream, then scrubbed them against that stone. The stream drew water from the Naviglio Grande. During the Second World War, women took over the washing work and brought their own clothes here.

An early twentieth-century centrifuge remains visible in a nearby courtyard, built to remove water from the laundry. A former shop selling soap and washing tools now houses a restaurant, while the main structure remains remarkably well preserved.