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This 1648 palazzo got a Rococo makeover in 1763. Today it houses the state railway offices (though they have long planned a move), a theatre and a Louis XV-style apartment open during special events and exhibitions.

The arcade that takes up the ground level of this Lombard Romanesque palace, built in 1228–33 (the top floor dates from 1771), once hosted the city’s main market. The relief on the façade depicts the 13th-century mayor Oldrado da Tresseno on horseback. Inside, the Salone dei Giudici has its original frescoes.

When Nathan Rogers, Lodovico Belgioioso and Enrico Peressutti constructed this brick-red, 106-m (348-ft) tower block in 1956–8, they showcased their post-war engineering talents by extending the top nine floors beyond the lower ones on struts, much like an oversized medieval tower. Unfortunately, the maintenance costs have proved to be horrendous.

In 1456 Francesco Sforza instituted one of his greatest public works, a massive hospital with separate wings for women and men, each based around four courtyards. The vast central Cortile Maggiore was added in the 17th century, along with the Annunciazione church with its Guercino altarpiece. The Neo-Classical men’s wing was eventually completed in 1904; but the entire hospital moved elsewhere in 1939, to be replaced by the University of Milan in 1958.

High-class Italian elegance came to terms with the Industrial Age in such marvels of engineering as this four-storey shopping arcade roofed with a steel-and-glass canopy. It was built in 1864–8 by Giuseppe Mengoni, who fell to his death from its scaffolding just days before the King arrived to open the galleria and lend it his name.

Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II

Milan’s municipio (city hall) has two distinct façades: a 1553 Mannerist one on Piazza S Fedele, and an 1886–92 Neo-Classical one facing La Scala theatre. The former was built by Galeazzo Alessi (who also designed the lovely main courtyard) in 1558; the latter dates to 1860.

Renaissance sculptor Leone Leoni, whose works grace Milan’s Duomo and Madrid’s El Escorial, built this palazzo in 1565, lining the lower level of the façade with eight giant telamones – columns in the form of a male figure.

The Salone d’Onore in this early 17th-century palazzo is a vast chamber with a cast-iron balcony. The 1731 ceiling was frescoed by Gian Battista Tiepolo with allegorical scenes glorifying the Dugnani family. A modest Museo del Cinema, which traces the early history of cinema, is housed in the building.

Milan once had a rule about structures rising no higher than the golden Madonnina atop the Duomo (see La Madonnina). The 127.1-m (417-ft) Pirelli Tower – designed in 1955–60 by a team headed by Gio Ponti and including Pier Luigi Nervi – broke that tradition, but placed a replica of the Madonnina on its own roof so she would still have the highest vantage point in Milan. It now houses Lombardy’s regional government and in 2002 survived being struck by a small plane.

Milan’s massive railway station is often considered a remarkable example of Fascist-era architecture, though its design (of 1912) pre-dates this period and owes more to the Liberty style. Finally completed in 1931, the station is caked in gleaming white Aurisina stone and decorated with reliefs, statues and murals too often overlooked.