Sforza Castle

The Castello Sforzesco is the great brick fortress at the end of Via Dante, and it tells the story of Renaissance Milan in a single sweep. The Visconti lords built the first castle here in the fourteenth century; Francesco Sforza, the soldier who made himself duke, rebuilt it from 1450 as a fortified residence, and under his son Ludovico il Moro it became one of the most brilliant courts in Europe, where Leonardo da Vinci and Bramante worked. Later centuries turned it into a barracks for Spanish, Austrian and French garrisons, and by the late nineteenth century the city nearly demolished it; instead the architect Luca Beltrami restored it, rebuilding the tall central Filarete Tower that you see from Via Dante. Today the castle's vast courtyards are free and open to anyone, a shortcut between the city centre and Sempione Park, while its wings house the city's civic museums, covered by a single ticket. The collections are wide and uneven in a pleasing way: ancient and medieval sculpture, including the tomb effigy of the condottiere Bernabo Visconti on horseback; an art gallery with works by Mantegna, Giovanni Bellini, Correggio and Titian; decorative arts and furniture; a fine collection of musical instruments; and Egyptian and prehistoric archaeology in the vaults. The star, though, is a single sculpture. Michelangelo's Rondanini Pieta, displayed since 2015 in its own museum in the former Spanish Hospital at the back of the castle, is the work he was carving in the days before his death in 1564, aged eighty-eight: a tall, thin, unfinished group of the dead Christ held by his mother, roughly hewn, with the polished legs of an earlier version still attached. It is one of the most moving objects in Italy, and you can see it almost alone.

Planning the visit: the courtyards and grounds are free; the museums require a ticket, which covers all the collections including the Rondanini Pieta. The civic museums are closed on Mondays, and the city of Milan runs free-entry times on certain days, which are popular, so check the official calendar if you want one. A ticket with a digital audio guide, sold through platforms such as Tiqets, helps make sense of a sprawling complex, and guided tours that combine the castle with the Pieta and, sometimes, the Last Supper are available. Allow at least two hours if you want to see more than the Pieta.

Leonardo at the castle: Leonardo painted the Sala delle Asse, a room on the ground floor, as a pergola of intertwined mulberry trees, a symbol of Ludovico il Moro. The room has been under long restoration; it opened for guided visits for a few weeks during the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics in February and March 2026 and then closed again for the final phase of the work, so do not count on seeing it until the city announces its reopening. Leonardo also wrote some of his notebook pages here, and one of his codices is held in the castle's Trivulziana library, which is not generally on public display.

Around the castle: walk straight through the courtyards and out the back into Sempione Park, the city's central park, laid out in the nineteenth century on the old parade ground, with the Arco della Pace at its far end and the Triennale design museum on one side. On a sunny day, it is the best place in central Milan for a picnic or a rest. The castle is also a short walk from the Last Supper and from Brera, so it fits into either a Leonardo morning or an art day. Families with young children often find the moat, towers and armour of the castle more engaging than the paintings.