Piero Puricelli, Count of Lomnago, was an Italian engineer and politician in the first half of the 20th century who was responsible for the construction in Italy, of the first motorways in the world. He became a senator of Italy in 1929.
Family life
Piero Puricelli, Count of Lomnago, was born the son of Angelo and Carlotta Combi. He attended the Federal Polytechnic Institute in Zurich, from which he graduated in Engineering in 1905. Puricelli married Antonietta Tosi; they had one son, Franco.
The first Italian motorway
In the period following the First World War, after economic development recommenced in Italy, a project to build a motorway was conceived - that is "... a new road reserved exclusively for motor traffic... ". In 1922 Puricelli designed the project, connecting Milan to Lake Como and Lake Maggiore. On September 20, 1923, King Vittorio Emanuele III inaugurated the first section of the motorway, to Gallarate. For its time, this was a futuristic work: the cart and the bicycle were still the dominant means of personal transport in Italy at the time, and there were no more than 85,000 motor vehicles in Italy in 1924, half in Lombardy. On September 21, 1924, the extension to Varese was inaugurated. The Autostrada dei Laghi was the first exclusive-use motorway built in the world because the high-speed AVUS road in Berlin was also used as a test track for motor vehicles. :it:Autostrada dei Laghi
The Monza Racetrack
The Autodromo Nazionale di Monza project was assigned to Arturo Mercanti, then director of the Automobile Club of Milan, and the engineers Alfredo Rosselli and Piero Puricelli. The overall length was, comprising a loop track, and a road track. The Automobile Club commissioned the construction of the racetrack in January 1922 to commemorate its twenty-fifth anniversary. Work began on May 15 and was completed in just 110 days. Pietro Bordino and Felice Nazzaro completed the first lap of the track on July 28 in a Fiat 570. The national racetrack was the third permanent circuit in the world, preceded only by the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the United States and by the English one at Brooklands, no longer in existence today. The choice of Monza was the result of studies seeking a location near Milan, to limit the "travel" costs for the maintenance of the racetrack. Setting aside alternative sites near Gallarate and Gagnola, the directors of the ACI chose the park at the Villa Reale in Monza.The circuit was then known as "the fastest in the world".
Political career
Puricelli was appointed Senator on February 26th, 1929, proposed by the Italian National Fascist Party and remained in office until his removal by the Alta Corte di Giustizia per le Sanzioni contro il Fascismo in 1945, for having been one of the "senators held responsible for maintaining fascism and making war possible, both by their votes and by their individual actions, including the propaganda exercised outside and inside the Senate." In July 1946 he was acquitted of the charge of collaboration.
