Top 9 Castles around San Donato Milanese

A true gem just a stone's throw from Milan. It's a shame it can't be visited.

route for children and tourists

With its seven centuries of history, the Sforza Castle is an extraordinary testimony to Milan's glorious times and dramatic moments. A fortress built by Galeazzo II Visconti between 1360 and 1370, the Castle became a ducal residence during the Visconti era, undergoing partial demolition during the Ambrosian Republic (1447-1450). Rebuilt by the new lord of the city, Francesco Sforza, it became the elegant setting for one of the most sumptuous European courts during the time of Galeazzo Maria Sforza and Ludovico il Moro, in an era that saw artists such as Leonardo da Vinci and Bramante in Milan. Having lost its appearance as a noble residence, the Castle was used as a barracks during the foreign dominations of the State of Milan: Spanish (1535-1706), Austrian (1706-1796), French (1796-1814), and Austrian again (1814-1859). Only at the end of the 19th century, during a unified Italy, was the historic building rebuilt, restored, and transformed into a museum by Luca Beltrami. Today, the Castle, with its museums and cultural institutions, is one of Milan's most significant monuments and attracts visitors from around the world.

Milan

The construction, perhaps on Visconti remains, of the ravelins, projections placed to protect the gates, began with the renovation of the Castle by Francesco Sforza. Of the Sforza ravelins, two bases remain on the east side of the Castle, one to defend the Porta del Carmine, the other where the medieval walls of the city were grafted and to the west, the Rivellino di Porta Vercellina. The latter, built in correspondence with the Porta di Santo Spirito, is the only one to have maintained the visible Sforza quadrangular plan, even if the current appearance is the result of the restoration by the architect Luca Beltrami. In fact, between 1911 and 1914, Beltrami restored part of the battlements, demolished at the time of the Spanish, the walls and the vaults of the passages and internal rooms. To defend the main gate of the Castle, Leonardo designed, commissioned by Ludovico il Moro, a more modern, pentagonal ravelin, which was built during the French domination of Louis XII, between 1499 and the beginning of 1500. Few traces of this bastion remain hidden in the moat.

This monumental complex was born as a defensive bulwark. Towards the end of 1300, it lost its military function to become a manor house within the land purchased by the Brivios, nobles of Germanic origin whose wealth came from agricultural activities. The name of Rocca derives from the fact that originally the building was one of the defensive bulwarks erected along the Milan - Lodi road in the early Middle Ages, at the time of the wars that pitted the Municipality of Milan against the Municipality of Lodi. The current building was built in 1600 by the Brivio marquises on the ruins of the pre-existing castle. It was at the center of important war episodes, such as the Battle of Marignano in 1515 and in 1859, when on 8 June Napoleon III and Vittorio Emanuele II entered Milan victorious, defeating the Austrians. From an architectural point of view it is a baroque palace built with a rather elaborate scheme: the north-west part houses a noble chapel, rich in typically seventeenth-century stucco and gilding. The entrance has a large portal with a beautifully crafted wrought iron gate, the work of a craftsman from Melegnano from the 1700s, rich in scrolls and arabesques. Since 1996 it has been public property and hosts painting exhibitions, classical music concerts and conferences of national importance in its halls with frescoed ceilings and large fireplaces.

Sixteenth-century fortress immersed in the countryside between San Giuliano and Melegnano. It can be reached either by taking a pleasant dirt road through the fields or by a more comfortable asphalt road. It is not always open so don't be disappointed if the gate is closed

Viewed from the cathedral, the mighty city palace is located as an extension of Via Dante, Largo Cairoli in Piazza Castello.