Galeazzo II Visconti ordered the original castle in 1358, on a site overlapping the Roman Castrum Portae Jovis. Francesco Sforza began rebuilding it as his princely residence in 1450. The medieval castle was a square about 656 feet (200 m) on each side, with walls up to 23 feet (7 m) thick.
Filarete was hired in 1452 to design and decorate the central tower, now the Torre del Filarete. An explosion damaged it in 1521, and Luca Beltrami rebuilt it between 1900 and 1905 on 16th-century drawings. Bramante painted frescoes in the Sala del Tesoro and is credited with the loggia bridge, and Leonardo da Vinci worked on the Sala delle Asse ceiling around 1498.
The complex houses the Pinacoteca, the Museum of Musical Instruments, the Egyptian Museum and the Museum of the Rondanini Pietà, which holds Michelangelo's last sculpture. The article says the castle is open to the public.
Comments