My Trip In Italy (Part 1D): Milan - Castello Sforzesco and Duomo di Milan

In the last article, I shared my experiences from when I visited the Leonardo da Vinci Science Museum. However, Milan isn’t merely just museums - it is also full of amazing architecture. Today, I’m focusing on these famous landmarks in the city, starting with the Duomo di Milan and Castello Sforzesco.

Castello Sforzesco (Sforza Castle)

You’re probably not going to miss this 15th-century medieval fortress located in the center of Milan. The Visconti family originally built Sforza Castle between 1358 and 1360. It was later restored into a ducal residence by the then Duke of Milan, Francesco Sforza, in 1450. With walls stretching roughly 180 meters in length, this castle was more of a showcase of political power than an actual fortification. Francesco Sforza’s nephew, Ludovico Sforza, later commissioned artists like Leonardo da Vinci to decorate the castle with their artworks, transforming it into a diverse cultural hub. Today, it houses art galleries and museums, and is open to the public free of charge during the day.

Outside the front of the castle, you’ll notice there’s a huge fountain, where pigeons can be found perched. However, what caught my eye were the two huge rows of wooden seats that formed semi-circles around the fountain. Up until then, I had been walking all day, so I decided to take a brief rest before continuing. If you ever find yourself wandering around in Milan, legs as flimsy as pasta, then I suggest you take a rest here as well.

Walking through the front entrance to the castle, you are immediately greeted by the huge main courtyard. Inside, you can fully appreciate the grandness of Sforza Castle, with its tall outer walls and perfectly-rounded corner towers.

Although these rounded corner towers are often regarded as a must-have in medieval castles, the design philosophy behind them is actually very advanced. On older fortifications, you’ll probably come across square or rectangular towers. However, these squared towers were prone to attack at their corners, which impacted the security of their design. This problem was solved with the introduction of rounded towers, which evenly distributed the impact force from enemy attacks. So if you ever see a castle with rounded corner towers, it was probably built after the 13th century (which is indeed the case for Sforza Castle).

When I visited the castle, it was raining quite heavily in the area. To not be drenched in the downpour, I decided to seek shelter in the central archway that connected the main courtyard to an adjacent, smaller one. It was here, waiting for the rain to stop, that I witnessed something astonishing: the ability of the castle to drain rainwater is very impressive.

In the temperate climates of Italy and Europe in general, rainfall is quite prevalent (and sometimes unpredictable in mountain areas). However, excessive rainfall can cause damage to the structural integrity of these medieval castles, something that the architects had in mind. That is why these fortresses had highly sophisticated drainage systems for their time. The roofs of Sforza Castle are slanted towards the sides of the wall, directing rainwater to the edges, where channels guide the rainwater to specific points, and the water flows into the courtyard in one continuous stream, guided further into the surrounding moat. Furthermore, I highly recommend standing underneath these drainage points (with an umbrella overhead, of course) and feel the power of gravity accelerate these streams of water towards you at unbelievable speed.

After roughly half an hour, the rainfall significantly lightened. It turns out that all the time I spent in the archway paid off, as I was fortunate enough to witness a rainbow emerge, perched upon the castle walls. As I breathed in the cleansed fresh air, I thought to myself, what a great combination of marvelous ancient architecture and nature’s beauty!

Duomo di Milan

The Duomo is the central cathedral of Milan, and is one of the world’s largest churches and the biggest in Italy. Known for the countless relief sculptures that decorate the outside walls as well as the Madonnina (a gilded copper statue of the Virgin Mary) standing atop the central spire, this cathedral is undoubtedly breathtaking. Personally, I think it looks better during sunset, as the sunlight adds a golden glow, an elegant detail perfect for getting those great photos and selfies.

What particularly fascinated me were the lengths that the cathedral architects had gone to decorate the outside of this magnificent work of engineering, which could only be explored upon closer inspection.

Standing at the base of the Duomo (close enough that I could touch the walls with my hands), I could make out not only the silhouettes of every sculpture, but also their poses, facial expressions, the clothes they were wearing, their hairstyles, etc.

At first, I thought that these were just extremely well-crafted sculptures. But after scanning many of them, I discovered that they all had different features and details, each of them unique to that single statue.

It was then that I realized every statue was sculpted with a different story to tell, a story that is sadly unrecognized by the countless number of tourists that walk past it every day. Although these stories are conveyed silently without words, it’s still possible to understand a few scenes depicted. Many of these stories originated from the Bible. Some portray heroes such as the mighty King David slaying Goliath. A few supposedly depict the patriarchs of noble families that helped fund the construction of the cathedral, a phenomenon prevalent in Italian artworks as well. And some sculptures possibly could have been self-portraits of the artisans who helped decorate the cathedral.

While I was bored from taking pictures and sat on the front steps of the cathedral, I decided to search up the Duomo on Wikipedia. And that’s when I learned a fun fact.

The Madonnina, often regarded as the ‘heart and soul’ of Milan, holds such cultural significance to the city that in the 1930s, a law was enacted that prohibited buildings from being taller than the statue. Although the law was later abolished and the era of modern skyscrapers was ushered in, there’s still a custom to put a replica of the Madonnina on top of any new building that stands taller than the original. This just goes to show how much the Italians respect their culture and history - and the effort they’re willing to put in to preserve it.

Conclusion

Virtually all tourists are going to visit the Duomo as well as the Castello Sforzesco on their trip to Milan. However, the city isn’t just known for its magnificent architecture; There’s also the large city park adjacent to the castle, as well as the Arco della Pace (Arch of Peace).

However, all that will have to wait until next week. Thank you for reading, and please consider liking and sharing this article.