History

Francesco Sforza, the newly made Duke of Milan, commissioned the castle’s construction in the fifteenth century on the site of an earlier medieval fortification. That fourteenth-century structure, known as the Castello di Porta Giovia (or Zobia), occupied ground that had once held the Roman Castrum Portae Jovis—one of four defensive fortifications protecting Roman Milan.

Between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the castle stood as one of Europe’s principal military citadels. Centuries of successive modifications transformed its character and function until the late nineteenth century, when architect Luca Beltrami undertook a comprehensive restoration between 1890 and 1905, reimposing historical accuracy on the accumulated changes.