Milan’s museums: art (and not only) for all tastes

Take some time out for yourself and enjoy the beauties the city has to offer, including the museums. Because Milan is at one with its museums, its foundations, the enormous exhibition spaces and the innumerable galleries scattered in every corner of the city. There is truly something for everyone. From ancient to contemporary art, from science to exhibitions dedicated to the world of the theatre: discovering the museums of Milan means giving yourself a little time to enjoy the regenerating power of art, in all of its forms.

Talking of museums in Milan means discovering a rich and varied urban substrate dedicated not exclusively to the world of art. Milan is one of the most important cultural centres in Italy and this - with no doubt at all - reflects on the city’s museums. The museums dotted over the territory are many and dedicated to every field of human knowledge. Let’s take a look at the most important museums in the city.

From among the Milanese museums, the Museum of the Twentieth Century is one of the youngest artistic institutions in the Lombard Capital: it was opened in 2010 and is located in the splendid Palazzo dell'Arengario in Piazza del Duomo. This is an exceptional location where the visitors can discover from close up the Italian artistic heritage (and not only) of the twentieth century. The path through the museum stretches chronologically through the Permanent Collection, which is perfectly blended into the magnificent exhibition space: between rooms with varieties of artists and other dedicated to single artists, the visitor’s gaze rises as she or he follows the path of a magnificent spiral ramp lending majesty to a structure that is already sublime. While the permanent collection offers over 400 works, the Museum of the twentieth century periodically offers interesting temporary exhibitions that explore the modern and contemporary languages of art.

Palazzo Reale, the Royal Palace, was for a long time the headquarters of the city’s government, and it now assumes the unusual raiments of a centre for exhibitions, starting from the 1950s, when it quickly became an undisputed centre of the city’s cultural life and contributed to Milan’s renaissance following the second world war. And since 1950s it has come a long way: the constant restoration work has made it possible to return to the citizens these splendid spaces, made even more magical by the works that periodically adorn the already lovely rooms of the museum. From Monet to Picasso, from Edward Hopper to Leonardo da Vinci, from Kandinsky to Klimt, the Royal Palace has hosted (and continues to host) the apex of World Art. Among the Milan museums this is certainly an unmissable treat.

This is one of the largest city art galleries : the Pinacoteca di Brera stretches over a surface area of 24000 square metres and offers visitors a relaxed and tranquil place where you can get a full tank of beauty. Officially opened in 1809 to support the teaching syllabus of the Accademia di Belle Arti, the Academy of Fine Arts, the Pinacoteca di Brera today exhibits the wonderful treasures of ancient and modern art. From Caravaggio to Hayez and up to Mantegna, visiting the Pinacoteca is like navigating through the pages of art.

Open since 1993, in 2015 the Prada Foundation inaugurated new exhibition areas, located in Largo Isarco, which give a new shine to the southernmost zones of Milan. With more than 19000 square metres available, the Prada Foundation has in a few years of activity become an exceptional art centre dedicated to contemporary art in all its forms and language. The works on show reinvent space, diffuse into that space and offer new perspectives to the numerous visitors wandering through the Foundation’s rooms. When your visit is over, be sure to stop off in the bar, designed and conceptualised by director Wes Anderson.

Let’s take a break from art for a moment and get into the world of science and technology. Since it is right in the centre, just a stone’s throw from Sant’Ambrogio, stands the National Museum of Science and Technology, the largest in Italy as well as one of the most important in Europe and the World: here, as well as the renowned submarine “Toti”, you can examine the Da Vinci genius more closely, as the museum dedicates - has done since its opening - much space to him.

An artistic event of international fame, the Milan Triennale is one of the most active and innovating of the city museums. From fashion to cinema, from the visual arts to communication, from 2007 the Triennale has also been home to the Triennale Design Museum, a space aware of new trends and ready to exhibit the innovations that emerge in the vast world of design, with full curation to interpret every aspect, from the entrepreneurial to the research areas. Housed inside the Palazzo dell'Arte, the Triennale is a real city institution which, while originally opened in Monza in 1923, was definitively transferred to Milan ten years later following the building of the Palazzo where it is now based.

Among the Milan museum institutions, the Castello Sforzesco is a real leader. Surrounded by a fantastic park, the Castle stands out magnificently over the city, while hiding within its walls innumerable treasures and countless museums. Because though everybody, for at least once in their lives, has wandered through its courtyards, very few - probably - have actually been inside to discover the beauties on show. From the celebrated Egyptian Museum to the Pinacoteca, which collects works that range from the fourteenth century to the Neoclassical epoch, from the Museum of Musical Instruments to the Pietà Rondanini containing the unfinished wondrous work of Michelangelo, the marvels open to viewing within the walls of the Castle are so many.

Milan is the home of all forms of art. The city is scattered with museums and there are so many of them that it would be dismissive to try to enclose them in a single article.
 
From the MUDEC - the Museum of Cultures, situated in the Ex Ansaldo Area of Via Tortona, to the Cenacolo Vinciano, from the Acquario Civico (Civic Aquarium) to the Poldi Pozzoli Museum, from the Museum of the Risorgimento to the Gallerie d'Italia, Milan is scattered with art. And even when the city is drenched by rain, we can be certain to find a little colour and beauty in one of the very many museums that are lie about the urban space.