What are the best museums in Milan? In the capital of Milan, museum lovers are spoiled for choice! From ancient art to contemporary, from design to science, all you have to do is choose the museum visit that best suits your taste and mood of the moment, and discover all the secrets of Milan’s collections thanks to the tales of our professional guides.
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Sforza Castle Museum
Libraries, archival and graphic collections, as well as extremely rich art collections. The museum collections range from the archaeological section to the sparkling decorative arts, from medieval and Renaissance sculpture to the masterpieces of the picture gallery. In the beautiful halls of the castle, the layouts, although partially renovated, bear the prestigious signature of the architectural firm BBPR, active in the post-World War II period. Dating back to 2015, however, is the creation of the Pieta Rondanini Museum, set up in the Castle’s Ospedale degli Spagnoli to house Michelangelo Buonarroti’s last sculpture in a space of rarefied elegance, designed by architect Michele De Lucchi. One last curiosity? The Castello Sforzesco also houses a vast collection of musical instruments, among the most important in Italy!
Brera Picture Gallery
It certainly includes the Brera Picture Gallery, a treasure trove of masterpieces in the heart of Brera, a neighborhood of many facets. In the halls of the museum, one loses count of the great masterpieces: Mantegna’sDead Christ, Piero della Francesca’s Montefeltro Altarpiece, Raphael’s Marriage of the Virgin , Caravaggio’s Supper at Emmaus, Canaletto’s famous Venetian views or Hayez’sromantic Kiss … The events that brought so many illustrious works of art here are largely linked to Napoleon’s enlightened project in the early 19th century. The picture gallery also experienced later seasons of momentum and renewal, and today there is enthusiastic talk of the Grande Brera project: a single museum center that in the near future should reunite the picture gallery with the modern art collections that will be placed in Palazzo Citterio, the subject of a recent restoration.
Ambrosian Picture Gallery
Another city picture gallery, but with a more ancient origin, is the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana. It is located in the area of ancient Mediolanum once occupied by the forum, the urban hub of commercial and political life: it is no coincidence that Leonardo da Vinci, describing the church of San Sepolcro which is now attached to the Ambrosiana building, identified it as the “true center of Milan.” The picture gallery grew out of the personal collection of Cardinal Federico Borromeo, who in the early seventeenth century planned a very modern cultural complex for Milan capable of housing paintings, sculptures, books, manuscripts and ancient objects. In the palace of the Veneranda Biblioteca Ambrosiana, the silent rooms of the picture gallery offer to the gaze of today’s visitor a long series of masterpieces, from Titian to Luini, from Raphael to Leonardo da Vinci, from Flemish masters to Caravaggio. The section devoted to Leonardo and his followers is certainly among the most interesting of the itinerary, along which it is also possible to admire some sheets of the Codex Atlanticus, one of the most extensive collections of Leonardo’s manuscript folios in the world!
Cathedral Museum
Moving a few steps away from the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, we reach the iconic Piazza Duomo: here, at the entrance to the Palazzo Reale, lies a small, precious museum that undoubtedly ranks among the best museums in Milan. It is the Duomo Museum, created to house the Cathedral Treasury and other works, sculptural, pictorial and applied art, belonging to the long history of the Fabbrica del Duomo. Not to be missed, the Model wooden 1:20 scale preserved here, evocative evidence of the impressive work done over time by architects and engineers active at the cathedral’s construction site.
La Scala Theatre Museum
Also a must-see for those visiting the Milanese capital is the Museo teatrale alla Scala, a collection of objects and memorabilia related to the history of Milan’s world-famous temple of music. It is no coincidence that the Frenchman Stendhal described La Scala as “the most beautiful theater in the world […] impossible to imagine anything larger, more solemn and new.” The museum itinerary included in the neoclassical building designed by architect Piermarini allows visitors to relive the glories of the great protagonists of the Milanese stage, such as Giuseppe Verdi, Eleonora Duse or Maria Callas. Precious jewelry, musical instruments, rare scores, librettos, stage costumes are just some of the objects among which it is nice to get lost while visiting the museum, humming to oneself the most famous arias of opera music.
Museum of the Twentieth Century
For those who are passionate about contemporary art, the journey continues to other Milanese museums. Not forgetting the PAC,Hangar Bicocca or the prestigious Prada Foundation, it is a must to start at the Palazzo dell’Arengario, home of the Museum of the Twentieth Century. The exhibition traverses the entire 20th century, devoting multiple “chapters” to the main currents and protagonists of the so-called short century: the International Avant-Garde, the Futurism Italian founded by Tommaso Marinetti, Giorgio De Chirico‘s Metaphysics, Giorgio Morandi‘s Plastic Values, Fausto Melotti’s Abstractionism, Lucio Fontana‘s Spatialism… and then, in a growing quest for experimentalism, the Gruppo Forma, Transavantgarde, Kinetic Art, Arte Povera. The Novecentopiùcento project promises an expansion of the museum to the second tower of the Arengario, to devote further space to the narrative of contemporary arts.
Museum Houses: Poldi Pezzoli, Bagatti Valsecchi, Boschi Di Stefano, Villa Necchi Campiglio
Unique prerogative of Milan’s museum context is the discreet presence of numerous house museums, since 2008 united into a single circuit. The four historic residences-all located in the city center-are named after their historic owners, collectors of admirable art collections: the palaces Poldi Pezzoli e Bagatti Valsecchi, Casa Boschi Di Stefano e Villa Necchi Campiglio. Among the rooms of these dwellings there is a very special atmosphere, different from that of the great museums: among undisputed masterpieces and objects of common use, one has the sensation of browsing through the passions, manners and habits of the ancient owners, reliving through their existences the history of the city of Milan itself.
ADI Design Museum
Tired of talking about art and painting? Among the best museums in Milan , it is also impossible not to mention the many institutions that give space to disciplinary paths other than art-historical ones. Heir to the ethnographic collections of the Castello Sforzesco, the MUDEC in via Tortona recounts non-European cultures and their historical dialogue with Milan through an innovative exhibition itinerary, renewed in light of the most up-to-date museological requirements. The Triennale, the new ADI Design Museum or other city foundations tell us instead about an all-Milan excellence, design, tracing its history and inventions. The Museum of Science and Technology or the Civic Museum of Natural History, finally, promise to intrigue those who are passionate about scientific discoveries, for a visit full of fun and interactivity!
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