| Brief Guide to Milan |
| 1. Duomo (Cathedral) |
| Milan's huge cathedral not only dominates the centre of the city: it is an extraordinary masterpiece of Gothic architecture - unique in Italy, unique in Europe. Faced in white marble that glows in the late afternoon sun, it bristles with sculpture, gargoyles and no fewer than 135 spires. It was begun in 1386 when Milan was ruled by the Visconti family, but work continued for over four centuries, and it was Napoleon - masterminding the French occupation of Italy - who finally brought about the completion of the façade in 1809. It is one of the world's largest Gothic cathedrals: the vast, somewhat austere interior is big enough to contain 40,000 worshippers. For many visitors, the highlight is a walk on the roof (via the stairs or a lift), among the spires and statues, with views over the city and all the way to the Alps. Sharing the Piazza del Duomo, to the south of the cathedral, is the Palazzo Reale, a former ducal palace (currently under restoration). This contains the Cathedral Museum (which takes you through the history of its construction and decoration) and the Civic Museum of Contemporary Art, featuring work by 20th-century Italian painters such as Boccioni, Modigliani and De Chirico, as well as international artists such as Mondrian, Kandinsky, Picasso and Klee (during restoration, some of the paintings are on view in exhibitions at other sites). Leading off the north side of the Piazza del Duomo, and linking it to La Scala, is the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, a magnificent glass-covered arcade built in 1878 and lined with elegant shops and cafés. |
| 2. Palazzo e Pinacoteca di Brera |
| Napoleon stands naked in the courtyard of this 17th-century palazzo in the neighbourhood called Brera, sculpted and cast in bronze by Canova in the guise of the Mars the Peacemaker. Inside is a premier-league collection of art, founded by Napoleon and harvested from the local religious institutions. Among its treasures are the celebrated 'Dead Christ' by Mantegna (an extraordinary feat of foreshortening), 'The Marriage of the Virgin' by Raphael, a fine array of work by the Venetian artists Giovanni Bellini, Tintoretti, Veronese, Tiepolo, Canaletto and Guardi, plus work by a host of big non-Italian masters such as El Greco, Rubens and Rembrandt. The 20th-century section includes work by De Chirico, and the Italian Futurists: Severini, Boccioni and Balla. www.brera.beniculturali.it |
| 3. The Last Supper |
| Three years after the death the last of the Viscontis in 1447, Milan came under the rule of the Sforzas. Ludovico Sforza, nicknamed 'Il Moro' (The Moor) because of his swarthy complexion, seized power in 1476, and set about trying to turn Milan into a model Renaissance city - a 'New Athens' - by inviting numerous artistic and intellectual celebrities to his court. Among them was the architect Donato Bramante (1444-1514), and - above all - Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), who became Ludovico's court painter, architect and military engineer. One of Leonardo's tasks, undertaken in 1494-98, was to decorate a wall in the refectory of the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie, where the Sforzas had their family church. Leonardo approached this task with typical verve and originality: the subject for this dining hall was, appropriately enough, 'The Last Supper' (Il Cenacolo), which he attempted to paint so realistically that it would seem as though Christ and the Apostles were actually present in the room. The painting was considered an absolute marvel even in Leonardo's lifetime. Unfortunately, Leonardo could not resist experimenting with paint, and instead of using traditional fresco, he tried instead to use a mixture of oil paint and tempera, which had started to deteriorate within a few decades. This vast masterpiece - one of the world's best known works of art - has been restored countless times, most recently over a period of 20 years to 1999. But it remains fragile and so precious that the numbers of visitors, and the length of each visit, are strictly limited. To see 'The Last Supper', advance booking is essential (you can do this on the Internet). The monastery's fine church, Gothic in origin but remodelled by Bramante, provides another taste of Renaissance genius. www.cenacolovinciano.it |
| 4. La Scala |
| The Teatro alla Scala is the world's most famous opera house. Many of the operas of Rossini, Bellini, Verdi and Puccini were first performed here, and all of the greatest opera-singers - Enrico Caruso, Elizabeth Schwarzkopf, Tito Gobbi, Maria Callas, Luciano Pavarotti, Jessye Norman - have graced its stage and gloried in the near-perfect acoustics of its spectacular auditorium. This can be a famously daunting experience: as the American soprano Renée Fleming put it (having found herself booed), the Italian audience treat opera like a kind of 'blood sport'. La Scala is also famed for its productions of ballet. The current theatre was originally built in 1776-8, and re-emerged from three years of restoration in 2004. It gets its name (literally 'The Stairs') from the church formerly on the site, Santa Maria alla Scala. Opera aficionados will want to book a performance ahead of their visit. Failing this, La Scala has its own theatre museum, which also offers a view into the auditorium. www.teatroallascala.org |
| 5. Castello Sforzesco |
| This massive and imposing fortress dates from 1368, the era of the Viscontis, but it was rebuilt by Francesco Sforza, founder of the Sforza dynasty in Milan, after he took control of the city in 1450 and it became the residence of the Dukes of Milan. Leonardo da Vinci walked these floors, and even decorated part of the Sala delle Asse (although much restored). Several museums are laid out in the old apartments of the castle. The Civic Museum of Ancient Art includes Michelangelo's last (and unfinished) sculpture, the Rondanini Pietà, plus furniture, sculpture and an impressive collection of paintings that includes work by many of the great names of the Italian Renaissance and later (Fra Filippo Lippi, Mantegna, Correggio, Tintoretto, Canaletto). There is also a Museum of Applied Arts (antique furniture, tapestries, weapons, ceramics, jewellery), a Museum of Musical Instruments, and a collection of ancient Egyptian mummies and other artefacts. The castle is attached to a large and attractive tree-shaded park called the Parco Sempione - a good spot for a picnic. www.milanocastello.it |
| 6. Poldi-Pezzoli Museum |
| This is a fascinating museum - the private collection of an art-lover, set in his own home, all of which was bequeathed to the city in 1879. As well as a collection of arms and armour, tapestry, ceramics, jewellery, clocks and watches, it has a fine selection of Renaissance paintings. Notable among them are Madonnas by Mantegna and Botticelli, 'St Nicholas of Tolentino' by Piero della Francesca, numerous works by the Lombard artist Bernardino Luini, a Pietà by Giovanni Bellini, portraits of Martin Luther and his wife by Lucas Cranach, and - the star of the show for many - the 'Portrait of a Young Woman' (an exquisite profile) by Antonio Pollaiuolo. www.museopoldipezzoli.it |
| 7. Ambrosiana Library |
| St Ambrose was Bishop of Milan in the 4th-century - in the period after the Edict of Milan of AD 313 when Christianity was becoming the accepted religion of the Roman empire. St Ambrose was so highly esteemed that adjective 'Ambrosian' became another word for Milanese. The Biblioteca Ambrosiana was built in 1609 for Cardinal Federico Borromeo. Its celebrated picture gallery contains works by a host of Renaissance stars of Italy and beyond, including a Madonna and Child by Botticelli, and one of Leonardo da Vinci's rare paintings, 'Portrait of a Musician', as well as Raphael's cartoon (preparatory drawings) for his painting 'The School of Athens' in the Vatican. The Library also has a collection of priceless books and manuscripts, more than 30,000 in all, including one of Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks, containing a thousand pages of drawings. www.ambrosiana.it |
| 8. Leonardo da Vinci Museum of Science and Technology |
| Housed in a 16th-century former convent, this museum is devoted to science and technology in the broad sense, from bicycles, musical instruments, and the techniques of goldsmithery and printing, to cinematography, radio, petrochemicals and astronomy. A section is devoted to Leonardo himself, showing his work as a scientist and engineer, with models and computer graphics of his designs for contraptions that foreshadowed a remarkable number of inventions of later centuries: aeroplane, helicopter, parachute, tank, machine-gun, subaqua equipment. www.museoscienza.org |
| 9. San Siro Tour and Museum |
| The San Siro Stadium (more formally known as the Giuseppe Meazza Stadium) is where Milan's two great soccer teams, AC Milan and Inter Milan, play their home games. It is a distinctive construction, with spiralling staircases on its outer pillars and seats for 85,700 sheltered beneath a cantilevered fibreglass roof. San Siro contains a museum devoted to the history of these two illustrious clubs, and there are also daily guided tours of the stadium. www.sansirotour.com |
| 10. Shopping in Il Quadrilatero |
| Milan today is a prosperous, go-getting city, celebrated above all for its designers - of cars, furniture and housewares as well as haute-couture clothing. If you want to glimpse the world of high fashion, go to the grid of streets called 'Il Quadrilatero della moda' (known in English as the 'Golden Quadrangle') to the northeast of the Duomo, which is bounded by the Via Montenapoleone, Corso Venezia, Via Senato and Via Manzoni. Other key streets include the Via della Spiga and the Via San Andrea. Here you will find the shops and ateliers of all the leading Italian labels: Armani, Dolce & Gabbana, Fendi, Ferragamo, Fiorucci, Gucci, Missoni, Moschino, Prada, Ungaro, Valentino, Versace, to name but a few. |
| Comments, copyright and linking |
|
Comments on this brief guide would be welcome. Also, please let us know if you do put in a link to this guide from your website and we will try to reciprocate with a link from us to your site.
Copyright: these pages are protected by copyright and reproduction of this material is strictly prohibited. Copyright belongs to Giant Games Limited, owner of the briefguides.co.uk and onlineshopping.co.uk websites. © 1997-2006 Giant Games Limited, but you are welcome to have a link to this webpage. |