The Sforza Castle, located in the centre of Milan in Italy, is a fortress built by Francesco Sforza, Duke of Milan, on the ruins of a citadel built in the same place by Galeazzo Visconti in the XVcentury. It’s a square, surrounded by moats, and flanked on the side of town, of two round towers, which housed tanks of water with a vast field of maneuver for which they were joined and on the campaign side (at that time) of the Ducal Court and two square towers and the Rocchetta, a fortress inside the fortress, where the Duke lived. The castle was divided into two parts, separated by a ditch (fosso morto). It retained the ducal Treasury in the Tower Castellana and in the Filarète Tower, they stored gunpowder but in 1521 it was destroyed by an explosion. The great artists of the time embellished the castle; Leonardo da Vinci painted the tangle of trunks of trees of the Asse room; Bramantino with its ‘Argos’ for the treasure room and Bramante designed a covered walkway linking the apartments of the Duke to the external walls (Ponticella di Ludovico the Moro). In 1535, after the death of Francesco II Sforza, Milan came under Spanish domination. A star-shaped fortification was built around the castle. It was destroyed during the Napoleonic occupation (1802-1814). From 1815, the Sforza castle served as barracks for the Austrian troops. During the five days of the insurgency against the Austrian occupation (18-22 March 1848), the Austrian general Radetzky opened fire on insurgents from the castle. In 1893, the military authorities gave the Sforza castle to the municipality of Milan, which had planned to demolish it but thanks to Luca Beltrami, the castle was saved. The restoration he undertook was intended to make the castle a museum and a cultural institution. The funds of the museum consisted of donations made by rich Milanese families and the communal fund. Following a bomb in 1943, the castle has been restored again.
Today it houses the ‘Sforzeschi’ museums, including the Museum of musical instruments, the sculpture Museum and the Pinacoteca. Thanks to Trivulziana library, the castle is a unique repository of archives, manuscripts and books.
Tips
Access is free but if you want to enter to the museums, you will have to pay a ticket.
As it is located in Milan downtown, you can easily walk to visit it. It is in line with the Duomo (Cathedral).
