Sforza Castle

The Sforza Castle was the seat of the dukes of Milan from 1450 and is now a group of civic museums, one of which holds Michelangelo's last sculpture. He was still working on the Rondanini Pietà six days before he died.

Overview

Francesco Sforza rebuilt it on the ruins of the Visconti fortress the Milanese had torn down, and Leonardo worked here for Ludovico il Moro, painting the vault of the Sala delle Asse as a canopy of interwoven mulberry branches. The castle was a barracks under Austria and Napoleon, nearly demolished in the 1880s, and restored as museums instead. Behind it stretches Parco Sempione, Milan’s largest park.

Highlights

The Rondanini Pietà has a room of its own in the former Spanish hospital, and the unfinished figures are the point — the last version is emerging out of the first. The Sala delle Asse reopened in 2024 after a long restoration of Leonardo’s vault. One ticket covers all the museums and the courtyards are free to walk through at any time.

Overview

Highlights

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