Castello Sforzesco
Encyclopedia
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, that used to be the seat and residence of the Duchy of Milan
Duchy of Milan
The Duchy of Milan , was created on the 1st of may 1395, when Gian Galeazzo Visconti, Lord of Milan, purchased a diploma for 100,000 Florins from King Wenceslaus. It was this diploma that installed, Gian Galeazzo as Duke of Milan and Count of Pavia...
and one of the biggest citadels in Europe and now houses several of the city's museums and art collections.
History
The original construction on the site began in the 14th century. In 1450, Francesco Sforza began reconstruction of the castle, and it was further modified by later generations. A number of these rooms originally had elaborate internal decoration - the best known of these being the Sala Delle Asse with surviving ceiling paintings by Leonardo da VinciLeonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance...
.
After the French victory in the 1515 Battle of Marignano
Battle of Marignano
The Battle of Marignano was fought during the phase of the Italian Wars called the War of the League of Cambrai, between France and the Old Swiss Confederacy. It took place on September 13 and 15, 1515, near the town today called Melegnano, 16 km southeast of Milan...
, the defeated Massimiliano Sforza
Maximilian Sforza
Maximilian Sforza was a Duke of Milan from the Sforza family, the son of Lodovico Sforza. He ruled between the occupations of Louis XII of France , and Francis I of France in 1515...
, his Swiss mercenaries and the cardinal
Cardinal (Catholicism)
A cardinal is a senior ecclesiastical official, usually an ordained bishop, and ecclesiastical prince of the Catholic Church. They are collectively known as the College of Cardinals, which as a body elects a new pope. The duties of the cardinals include attending the meetings of the College and...
-bishop of Sion
Bishop of Sion
The Diocese of Sion is a Roman Catholic ecclesiastical territory in the canton of Valais, Switzerland. It is the oldest bishopric in the country and one of the oldest north of the Alps. The cathedral at Sion, "Notre-Dame du Glarier" was fortified by walls and crowns one of the two hills on which...
retreated into the Castello Sforzesco. However, King Francis I of France
Francis I of France
Francis I was King of France from 1515 until his death. During his reign, huge cultural changes took place in France and he has been called France's original Renaissance monarch...
followed them into Milan, and his sapper
Sapper
A sapper, pioneer or combat engineer is a combatant soldier who performs a wide variety of combat engineering duties, typically including, but not limited to, bridge-building, laying or clearing minefields, demolitions, field defences, general construction and building, as well as road and airfield...
s placed mines under the castle's foundations, whereupon the defenders submitted.
Under the Spanish domination, the castle was developed: between 15th and 16th century, was protected by 1000 to 3000 men, and was one of the biggest citadel
Citadel
A citadel is a fortress for protecting a town, sometimes incorporating a castle. The term derives from the same Latin root as the word "city", civis, meaning citizen....
s in Europe; a huge star fort
Star fort
A star fort, or trace italienne, is a fortification in the style that evolved during the age of gunpowder, when cannon came to dominate the battlefield, and was first seen in the mid-15th century in Italy....
was built, with 12 bastions. The external fortifications reached 3 km in length and covered an area of 25,9 hectare
Hectare
The hectare is a metric unit of area defined as 10,000 square metres , and primarily used in the measurement of land. In 1795, when the metric system was introduced, the are was defined as being 100 square metres and the hectare was thus 100 ares or 1/100 km2...
s.
After the unification of Italy in the 19th century, the restoration of the castle was started following its transfer from military use to the city of Milan. The restoration work was directed by Luca Beltrami
Luca Beltrami
Luca Beltrami was an Italian architect and architectural historian, known particularly for restoration projects. He was a student of Camillo Boito at the Brera Academy...
. The central Filarete tower above the main city entrance was rebuilt between 1900 and 1905 as a monument to King Umberto I.
The castle was severely damaged as a result of the allied bombardment of Milan in 1943 during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. The post-war reconstruction of the building for museum purposes was undertaken by the BBPR
BBPR
BBPR was an architectural partnership founded in Milan, Italy in 1932.-The Partners:The partners were Gianluigi Banfi, Lodovico Belgiojoso, Enrico Peressutti, and Ernesto Nathan Rogers...
architectural partnership.
Current use
The best known of the current civic museums is the Pinacoteca del Castello Sforzesco, with an art collection which includes MichelangeloMichelangelo
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni , commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet, and engineer who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art...
's last sculpture, the Rondanini Pietà
Rondanini Pietà
The Rondanini Pietà is a marble sculpture that Michelangelo worked on from the 1550s until the last days of his life, in 1564. It is housed in the Castello Sforzesco in Milan. His final sculpture, the Rondanini Pietà revisited the theme of the Virgin Mary mourning over the body of the dead Christ,...
, Andrea Mantegna
Andrea Mantegna
Andrea Mantegna was an Italian painter, a student of Roman archeology, and son in law of Jacopo Bellini. Like other artists of the time, Mantegna experimented with perspective, e.g., by lowering the horizon in order to create a sense of greater monumentality...
's Trivulzio Madonna
Trivulzio Madonna
The Trivulzio Madonna is a painting by the Italian Renaissance painter Andrea Mantegna, executed in 1497. It is housed in the Museum of Ancient Art of the Castello Sforzesco, Milan....
and Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance...
's Codex Trivulzianus
Codex Trivulzianus
The Codex Trivulzianus is a manuscript by Leonardo da Vinci that originally contained 62 sheets, but today only 55 remain. It documents Leonardo's attempts to improve his modest literary education, through long lists of learned words copied from authoritative lexical and grammatical sources...
manuscript .
The Castello complex also includes The Museum of Ancient Art, The Furniture Museum, The Museum of Musical Instruments and the Applied Arts Collection, The Egyptian and Prehistoric sections of the Archaeological Museum and the Achille Bertarelli Print Collection.