House / Gardens Sights in Milan — 12 of Our Favourites

It was founded in 1805 by Napoleon, who wanted to create a model agricultural estate and hunting reserve. Works started in 1806 under the rule of viceregent Eugenio di Beauharnais on the northern grounds of the Royal Palace with the aim of creating a park bigger than Versailles.

The park was designed by Luigi Canonica. Inside the extensive enclosure, whose walls encompassed part of the old medieval city walls, there were fields, roads, houses and gardens as well as a forest area used for hunting.

The park was opened to the public by the Austrian governor of Milan, Ranieri, in 1841, although only on Sundays from midday to dusk. The grounds were mainly occupied with vineyards, and all activities inside the park were regulated by the Austrian government.

In 1864, after Monza became part of the Savoie kingdom, the park was widely opened to the public and king Umberto I spent long periods of time at the Royal Palace. In 1919, his son donated it to the Opera Nazionale Combattenti, a charity dedicated to the reintegration of World War I veterans. Wanting to make a profit out of it, the organisation decided to build the racetrack and golf course.

Nowadays, Monza park is the perfect place for a leisurely stroll or a bike ride (there are facilities to rent bicycles inside). You can stop for a quick lunch, a drink or a snack at one of the many bars and restaurants on the grounds, or even go swimming at the Olympic swimming pool near the racetrack.

The cemetery is a tribute to the memory of the rich and famous of Milanese society. The most illustrious bodies are buried around the Famedio, 'Temple of Fame', including novelist Alessandro Manzoni, Luca Beltrami (restorer of the Castello Sforzesco), conductor Arturo Toscanini, poet Salvatore Quasimodo and many others. You can check the main highlights on this map.

Sculptures and architecture reflect the eclectic taste of the era, with echoes of neo-Gothic, neo-Romanesque and neo-Byzantine styles.

This prestigious institution was established in 1807 as part of the project to revive the capital of the Napoleonic kingdom of Italy, and opened in 1808 in the dependencies of a former Baroque Lateran monastery.

Some of the most important musicians and conductors in Italian history have studied here, including Giacomo Puccini, Riccardo Muti and Ludovico Einaudi. Nowadays, there are two concert halls, the smaller Sala Puccini for chamber music and the bigger Sala Verdi for symphonic and choral music, as well as a vast library that includes manuscripts by Mozart, Donizetti, Bellini and Verdi, and a small museum with historical instruments.

Andrea Boni is responsible for its façade which is a mixed 19th-century style. Inside, it houses a museum dedicated to Manzoni, including well-preserved rooms, paintings, illustrated books and his studio.

The exhibition and house were fully renovated in 2015. The house also contains the National Centre for Manzoni Studies and the Lombard Historical Society Library.

The tower was designed by architect Gio Ponti, author of the Pirelli Tower, and inaugurated in 1933. It was considered a true work of art combining modern architecture and contemporary techniques, erected in only two months.

It was completely restored after 1972, and it now has a modern lift that can take up to five visitors to the upper platform in less than a minute. At its base is the trendy drinking spot, the Just Cavalli Hollywood Cafe.

On a good day, the view from the top of the tower may encompass the Milan city skyline as well as the Alps, the Apennines and part of the Po Valley.

In 1771, archduke Ferdinand of Augsburg arrived in Milan as its new governor with his wife, Beatrice d'Este, establishing his court here. This neoclassical palace, designed by Giuseppe Piermarini in 1777 and finished in only three years, was used by the archduke as his country residence until the Napoleonic troops arrived in 1796.

With the arrival of Napoleon, the villa was occupied by his stepson, Eugène de Beauharnais. After his fall, it went into Austrian hands which abandoned the building until 1818, when it came into the possession of Lombard-Veneto viceregent Giuseppe Ranieri. In 1818 field marshal Radetzky turned it into its residence.

After the fall of the Austrian regime, king Umberto I of Savoy lived here and renovated the buildings with the help of architect Majnoni, making it more suitable to his late 19th-century taste. But when the king was murdered in Monza, his son refused to use the Royal Palace and decided to close it and bequeath it to the town council

Fully restored in 2003 after years of decay, the palace boasts a distinctive neoclassical style. There are four floors in the main building. The ground floor currently houses two restaurants, a cafe, bookshop, and workshops. On the first floor, you can visit the royal private chambers which feature not only bedrooms but a billiard room, library, studio and bathrooms, as well as the public rooms, including the throne room, ballroom, dining room, and mirror room. The second floor contains further private apartments, while the upper floor is where the servants lived.

The large palace estate and complex also features a royal chapel, richly decorated with stuccoes and paintings, as well as a small theatre for 120 courtesans built in 1806 by Luigi Canonica, a large conservatory and orangerie for exotic plants, and a rotonda.

The collection – which comprises paintings, sculptures and drawings – is an extraordinary testimony to the history of 20th-century Italian art from the first decade to the end of the sixties. The foundation opened in 2003 and showcases around 300 pieces of modern art.

There are masterpieces by Lucio Fontana, Giorgio de Chirico, Piero Manzoni, Achille Funi, Mario Sironi, Severini and Boccioni. There are also important pieces of furniture by early 20th-century Italian designers like the firm Ducrot of Palermo, Alessandro Mendini or Gino Levi Montalcini.

Brothers and barons Fausto and Giuseppe Bagatti Valsecchi renovated their home in Milan at the end of the 19th century in a Neo-Renaissance style. At the same time, they began collecting paintings and decorative arts of the 15th and 16th centuries to decorate the house.

In the 1970s, their heirs decided to open the house and the collection to the public. They have kept the domestic feel, arranging the objects as they were in the 19th century and avoiding labels. The collection includes musical instruments, sculptures, furniture, clocks, textiles, glass, tapestries, ivories and ceramics. There are works by Giovanni Bellini, Bernardo Zenale and Giampietrino.

Francesco Sforza, Duke of Milan, founded this hospital for the poor to gain supporters among the people, who were followers of the Visconti family. Works on the design by Filarete started in 1456, and continued with engineer Guiniforte Solari after his death in 1469, who laboured with his son in law Giovanni Antonio Amadeo.

The building is a rectangle made up of a series of equal square inner courtyards (cortile), with the church in the centre, and with one wing dedicated to men and the other to women. Filarete designed it as part of his project to turn Milan into an ideal Renaissance city.

The lower part of the facade was designed by Filarete, while the upper part was done by Solari and the double porch by Amadeo, transformed in the 17th century. The left wing was not finished until the 18th century, thus mixing Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque styles.

In 1939, the hospital was relocated and is now home to arts, history and law faculties of the University.

In 1893, Emilio Alemagna began landscaping the park in the then-popular style of the 'English Garden' to afford views to two nearby city landmarks the "Arco della Pace" (Arch of Peace) and the Sforzesco Castle.

It contains a mini-coliseum dating back to the Napoleonic period, which is today used for athletic events and the occasional outdoor concert. The Palazzo d'Arte is one of a handful of museums and galleries in the park which currently hosts the Triennale di Milano art expo. The Torre Branca, another feature of the park, provides panoramic views of the city.

The entire park is covered by a free wireless network, and inside there are cafes, bars, an area dedicated to dogs, a playground, basketball courts and public toilets.

The team behind the post World War II reconstructionist design was led by architect Gio Ponti and ordered by Alberto Pirelli, president of the Pirelli company, a large Italian manufacturer of tyres and cables. With 124 metres, it became the company's headquarters when its construction finished in 1960.

The Italian architect created a modern curtain wall façade, in which the pillars are clearly visible between its crystal walls. It was purchased by the region of Lombardia in 1978, and it has been an administration building since then.

Built on one of the sides of the medieval market square and along the road connecting Monza with Brianza, the Arengario housed public activities and events such as trials, council meetings and trade exchanges.

Thus, its main floor has a vast room able to accommodate a large group of people, while there is a big porch underneath used to house market stalls and where measuring units were carefully kept in the Middle Ages. Access to the first floor was originally done via an external staircase while on the south side there was a small stone loggia known as the 'Parlerá' from where the commune's decrees were read to the people.

The Arengario's design was inspired by Milan's Palazzo della Ragione and is easily recognisable by its red brick walls and red and white window frames. The bell tower was added later and decorated with crenellations.

The building is now used for temporary exhibitions by Monza's town council.