At the beginning of the 1800’s the city’s economical development called for a new location for the marketplace which had been growing substantially during the 1700’s.In 1816 the Commissione di Pubblico Ornato, the institution that was in charge of overseeing the city’s development, contacted Luigi Orelli and asked him to design a “new marketplace for grains”. At first the structure he designed was a huge porti-co that could shelter goods and market goers, but the project grew more ambitious and by 1844 it had developed into the imposing building we see today. It turned the city into one of the country’s largest grains stock exchange. The structure was planned not only as a place for exchanges, but for social life as well, and soon it was perceived by citizens as “the city’s most impo-sing and magnifcent building”. The façade was located on the Northern side (Corso Italia), and it was decorated with two imposing staircases, Ionic pilasters and a tympanum which was embellished with three allegorical sculptures: Water, Patriotism (which has been removed a few years ago due to some damages sustained over the years), and the Earth. The scene that takes up the heart of the tympanum is a work by Gerolamo Rusca and it depicts the Triumph of Ceres, the goddess associated with the Earth, and Bacchus, the god of wine. The frieze’s peculiar iconography was strongly connected with the purpose of the building, in which agricultural products were exchanged. The entrance hall is embellished with statues of fi ve important jurists and economists: Bandini, Genovesi, Verri, Gioia and Romagnosi.On the Southern side (Piazza Martiri della Libertà) the cannonballs of the Battaglia della Bicocca, that took place in 1849, are still visible.Today it houses different offices, stores, restau-rants, the Sala Borsa and the auditorium of the lo-cal Chamber of Commerce.