10 Best Museums in Milan

Sforzesco Castle is an iconic symbol of Milan, a museum in a historic castle that showcases a wide variety of subjects related to quirky history. One area of the museum is dedicated to furniture. An art gallery is housed in another area. A collection of musical instruments is in a 3rd section, and in yet another is one of the largest collections of Renaissance sculptures and statuary in the nation. One of the most impressive collections is dedicated to the final work of Michelangelo, the Rondanini Pietà.

The museum houses 10 collections in all: just pick which area you want to start in and work your way through the others. It’s directly in the city centre.

Pinacoteca di Brera is one of the finest painting galleries in Milan and is an iconic heart of the city’s cultural scene. The collection of paintings here in the city centre is among the largest in Italy and features great Italian masters from Caravaggio to Mantegna, Raphael and beyond. Some of the highlights of the museum include 'The Kiss' by Hayez, the 'Lamentation of Christ' by Mantegna, 'Supper at Emmaus' by Caravaggio, 'Discovery of the Body of Saint Mark' by Tintoretto and 'The Marriage of the Virgin' by Raphael.

Just behind the museum is a gorgeous botanical garden, the Orto Botanico di Brera, a paradise where you can relax and reflect on what you’ve seen.

The National Museum of Science and Technology Leonardo da Vinci (Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci) offers hundreds of hands-on exhibits tracing the history of scientific advancement. This family-friendly museum dedicated to Leonardo da Vinci is largely focused on his achievements and works, but also offers a gigantic collection of machinery, planes, trains and automobiles, plus models of Da Vinci’s designs and a look at whether they would or would not have worked, and why.

It also provides hands-on labs where adults and kids can perform STEM experiments related to energy, biotechnology and other modern fields. It’s housed in a beautiful 16th-century monastery and is located within the city centre’s Sant’Ambrogio neighbourhood.

The Royal Palace (Palazzo Reale Milano) showcases the complex and fractured history of Italy with exhibits about the various Spanish, French and other rulers in the country’s development. It looks at the Visconti, Sforza and Habsburg families along with others who have ruled over this peninsula at one point in time, showcasing how Italy went from the seat of civilisation and the heart of an empire to a hotly contested piece of land to the nation it is today.

You’ll get the opportunity to explore it all, from emperors to kings, fascists and the democratic republic of today. This fascinating museum in the city centre offers artefacts, ephemera, artwork and items that bring this rich history to life.

Mudec (Museo delle Culture di Milano), or the Museum of Cultures, is an artistic space that’s among Milan’s newer museums and showcases anthropological exhibits from all over the world. The museum opened in 2015 and was designed by noted architect David Chipperfield, who transformed an old industrial building into a visually striking modern institution. The museum explores everything from Chinese immigration to ancient Egypt and modern and contemporary arts, and features some blockbuster temporary, rotating and visiting exhibits. It has showcased works by such important artists as Wassily Kandinsky, Roy Lichtenstein and Frida Kahlo.

The museum also hosts classes, workshops, guest speakers and an event space, so there’s always something going on. It’s about 20 minutes southwest of the city centre.

Fondazione Prada is an expansive, sleek and ultramodern art museum offering a wide range of avant-garde and contemporary exhibits with a fun and quirky approach. This museum was designed by the famed architect Rem Koolhaas. One of the more unusual exhibits is a haunted house installation that is built inside a former distillery. The museum is best known for its temporary rotating exhibits, and between 2015 and 2021 it saw 30 of these come through in the visual arts and architecture field alone, meaning there’s always something new to see here.

The museum features multimedia exhibits including virtual reality installations, photography, solo art shows and cinema presentations. It’s only 18 minutes south of the Milan city centre.

The Milan Natural History Museum (Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Milano) is the oldest civic museum in the city and has been offering exhibits for over 180 years. It’s famed across Europe for its permanent exhibits covering 23 rooms and more than 5,000 square metres of space. It’s divided into sections on human history, palaeontology, zoology and mineralogy. Kids thrill to the huge dinosaur and animal displays, but it’s worth mentioning that most of the documentation is in Italian only here.

The museum is located in a beautiful and romantic park directly in the city centre. It also offers free admission on the 1st and 3rd Tuesday of every month and the 1st Sunday of every month.

The Museo del Cenacolo Vinciano offers visitors the unique chance to see a display of the most prominent piece of art in the city: Da Vinci’s 'The Last Supper'. It’s located in a small rectory in the Santa Maria delle Grazie monastery, and it’s astounding that it has survived for over 500 years. To see the painting, which has survived botched restorations, bombing raids and careless accidents, you will need a ticket, as groups of 15 people at a time are ushered in to see the painting.

Guided tours are available where you can explore the rectory, learn about the painting and see the piazza outside, and are highly recommended. It’s a short walk west of the city centre.

Triennale di Milano is a design museum showcasing the history of Italian design with a permanent collection that is reorganised annually to celebrate a specific theme. Milan is the centre of Italian design, and this city celebrates innovation like almost nowhere else. The museum showcases important designers who have contributed to the global rise of Italian design, and the reorganisation of the museum every year means you’re always getting the hottest focus for the time when you visit. It is, in many ways, the haute couture of museums.

The 2nd-floor bar offers stunning panoramic views of the city, and the garden hosts an iconic fountain. It’s 10 minutes northwest of the city centre.

Museo del Novecento is a modern-art museum in the city centre housing a vast collection of 20th-century sculptures, paintings and artworks by modern masters. Just a few of the artists on display here include Kandinsky, Modigliani, Picasso, Fontana and Boccioni. One of the highlights of the collection is a copy of Umberto Boccioni’s Unique Forms of Continuity in Space, an iconic sculpture of the Futurist movement. This sculpture is so iconic that it's even on the back of Italy’s 20-cent euro coin.

This is one of the top destinations in Milan and all of Italy for modern art produced over the past 120-plus years with hundreds of works in its collection.