traveldk.com

Leonardo’s extraordinary fresco of the Last Supper adorns a wall of the convent refectory (see Leonardo’s Last Supper) and is of course the chief attraction of this church. Other features include a magnificent Renaissance tribune, possibly designed by Bramante, who did the cloister and probably the main portal, too.

A few pieces in an otherwise modest collection make this a worthwhile stop. The best is the Trivulzio Cup (see Civico Museo Archeologico, Milan). A boulder from the Val Camonica (see Val Calmonica Villages), which is adorned with 4,800-year-old Bronze Age carvings, lies in the entrance court. There’s also a stunning silver platter from the mid-4th century that displays in relief the deities of earth, sky, water and the zodiac – a resounding statement of faith in the old gods at a time of encroaching Christianity. In the 15th-century cloisters, half-demolished by bombs during World War II, are a pair of brick towers from the bastions of the Imperial-era city.

Milan’s vast, glowering castle complex squats at the northwest corner of the historic centre, an odd combination of oversized courtyards, lithe towers and lovely medieval nooks and crannies.

Castello Sforzesco

Milan’s only real park started life as the 15th-century ducal gardens, though its layout, laced with pathways, dates from the late 19th century. A fine little free aquarium is housed in a 1906 Liberty-style structure. There are also fountains (one by Giorgio de Chirico), exhibition halls, a sports arena and the triumphal Arco della Pace.

One of four great basilicas built by St Ambrose in the 4th century (and finished by its namesake in 401) is popularly dedicated to the Anaunia Martyrs (see Northern Milan). The external walls are mostly original; the interior was renovated in the 11th and 12th centuries, and frescoed with a rainbow of angels and a Coronation of the Virgin by Bergog-none in 1515. There are also patches of a late 14th-century fresco in a chapel off the choir.

Of the original church, finished in 1254 and dedicated to Venice’s patron St Mark as a tip of the hat for Venice’s help in defeating Barbarossa, all that remains is the main stone doorway, three saints in façade niches and the top of the right bell tower. The rest was overhauled in the 19th century, with care to retain some 16th-century frescoes. In the right tran-sept, there are earlier frescoes, dating to the 13th century, which were rediscovered only in the 1950s.

In Northern Italy, Milan’s painting gallery is second only to Venice’s Accademia (though for sheer variety the Brera wins). Since Napoleon inaugurated the collection, it has been housed in the Jesuit’s Palazzo di Brera. It’s one of the regions’ main Top 10, and for more on the collection – which includes works by Piero della Francesca, Raphael, Bellini, Mantegna and Caravaggio.

Milan’s Neo-Classical (1790) “Royal Villa” housed Napoleon in 1802 and Marshal Radetzky until 1858. It is now given over jointly to weddings and an art gallery, with works by Romantic master Hayez, Neo-Classical sculptor Canova, Futurist Boccioni and Tuscan Macchiaioli (pseudo-Impressionist) like Lega and Fattori. Morandi, Corot, Gauguin and Van Gogh also get a look in. Marino Marini (20th-century sculptor of happy men riding horses) gets his own wing. Some rooms may be closed for restoration.

Milan’s vast mid-19th-century cemetery is most popular for a pantheonic monument housing (among others) the remains of Alessandro Manzoni (see I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed)). The grounds are filled with Art Nouveau tombs of Milan’s top families – a free map shows where such notables as Arturo Toscanini rest in peace. Corners have been set aside for non-Catholic graves, and there’s a monument to Jews deported by the Nazis.

The 14th-century Certosan abbey has largely vanished under Milan’s suburbs, but its church of Santa Maria Assunta survives. It is capped with a fine late Renaissance façade, and the interior was frescoed by Daniele Crespi in 1629 with stories of the Certosan order.