Royal Villa of Milan

The Villa Belgiojoso Bonaparte, also known as Villa Reale and formerly called Villa Comunale, is a palace in Milan, in Lombardy in northern Italy. It was built between 1790 and 1796 as the residence of Count Ludovico Barbiano di Belgiojoso. The villa is in Neoclassical style, and was designed by Leopoldo Pollack. The main entrance is on via Palestro, facing the Giardini Pubblici of Porta Venezia, the eastern gate of the city.

During the Kingdom of Italy it became the residence of Viceroy Eugène de Beauharnais and his family.

In 1920 the villa came under the ownership of the Comune of Milan; in 1921 it became the home of the Galleria d'Arte Moderna.

Beside the villa is the Padiglione d'Arte Contemporanea, an exhibition space for contemporary art, which was built in 1955 on the site of the former stables of the palace, destroyed by wartime bombing.

The gardens of the villa, in English style with an artificial lake, were laid out by Leopoldo Pollack.

Text adapted from “Villa Belgiojoso Bonaparte” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Royal Villa of Milan ranks #2,166 of 7,738 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #168 of the 452 mapped in Italy. Founded 1796, it is older than 14% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 525 atlas entries founded in the 18th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 1,882 times in the last 60 days, more than 65% of the atlas. 18 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Milan, 1 km away. See how Italy compares in the castle statistics.

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Read the full history on Wikipedia ↗