An active residential center in the province of Milan, Segrate is mentioned for the first time in a document dell'830, the "Codex Diplomaticus Longobardiae", a collection of public and private documents. According to the local historians the town's name derives from "segalis" or "secare" (the cultivation of rye or cutting of hay), to which the ending "ate" was added.
Besides the religious buildings (the Parish of St. Stephen, the Church of Our Lady Immaculate, the Church of God the Father, the Church of Our Lady of the Rosary, the Church of St. Albert, the Great Church of Saint Charles and Anna), in town there are some wonderful examples of contemporary architecture, such as City Hall, designed by Aldo Rossi in 1965, the headquarters of the Mondadori publishing house, designed by Oscar Niemeyer in 1975, the IBM building, designed by Marco Zanuso, residential areas of Milan San Felice (designed by Luigi Caccia Dominioni , Vico Magistretti and George Pedroni) and Milan 2.