Who lived in the Castello Sforzesco

The Visconti

Galeazzo II Visconti built the Castello di Porta Giovia between 1360 and 1370 and made it the ducal residence. At the end of the dynasty, the Ambrosian Republic partially demolished it between 1447 and 1450. History, by date.

The Sforza

Francesco Sforza rebuilt it from 1450 as a court residence. Galeazzo Maria, with architect Benedetto Ferrini, and Bona of Savoy—after whom the 1477 tower is named—lived in the Corte Ducale; Ludovico il Moro, from 1494, turned it into one of Europe’s richest courts. Leonardo lived and worked at court for nearly twenty years; Bramante designed the Ponticella over the moat; Bonifacio Bembo frescoed the Cappella Ducale. The Rocchetta, the stronghold with a single drawbridge, was the refuge when the court distrusted the city. Where the Sforza lived, beyond here.

The soldiers

From 1535–36, under Charles V, the castle became a Spanish citadel; then an Austrian barracks in the 18th century, a French one under Napoleon, Austrian again from 1815, and Italian after 1861. The dukes’ rooms housed troops for three and a half centuries until Luca Beltrami restored them as a museum. Who owns it today.

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