Institutional portal - Municipality of Milan

Milan, June 19 2020 – With the inauguration of the “Estate Sforzesca” calendar, on Sunday 21 June, at 16.30 pm, the summer season of Milanese culture officially opens, which sees the reopening of the museums and exhibitions of the Sforzesco Castle starting from Thursday 25 June.

At the Castle the Museum of the Rondanini Pietà, the Museum of Ancient Art, the Museum of Decorative Arts and the Museum of Musical Instruments will reopen on Thursday and Friday - the checkerboard model for the opening of the civic museums continues. The Furniture Museum, the Art Gallery and the Prehistoric section will remain closed to the public for technical reasons related to air conditioning systems. During the museum itinerary, in the Sala della Balla, the exhibition “Competition MilanoVetro-35” also reopens.

To celebrate the reopening together with visitors, on Thursday 25 June, from 15.30 pm to 17.30 pm, six students of the "Carlo Tenca" Music High School will play the Tallone piano of the Museum of Musical Instruments in the Sala della Balla in a music marathon with pages by Beethoven , Chopin, Schumann, Scriabin, Ravel, Debussy.

The exhibition dedicated to the photographer Cesare Colombo also reopens to the public, inaugurated with great success just before the lockdown, which sees over one hundred photographs from 1952 to 2012 dedicated to the city of Milan and its cultural, economic, political and social history on display in the Sala Viscontea . Entrance to the exhibition is free and limited (15 people every half hour), with reservations required on place

Libraries and Archives will reopen to the public from Monday 29th, by appointment.

Furthermore, from 26 June, every week, from Tuesday to Friday, guided tours of the "Battlelines at sunset" will start, with the possibility of admiring Milan from above at the most fascinating hour, and on weekends the visits to the Battlements of the Castle will resume ; again from June 26th, new cycle of guided tours, this time outdoors, with the special visit "The Castle in the open air", to discover the over 130 works present in the courtyards, with evening appointments during the closing time of the Castle and during the day also for families with children. Info 

In addition to the Sforzesco Castle, Studio Museo Francesco Messina also enters the reopening calendar (from Thursday to Sunday 11am-18pm, which from 10 July will host the exhibition "Maria Cristina Carlini. Geologie, la memoria della Terra", which can be visited without reservations), Casa della Memoria (Thursday and Friday, 11am-18pm, with the exhibition “Arte Testimonianza Memoria”) and Casa del Manzoni (from Tuesday 23 June with the following times: Tuesday and Wednesday 11am-15pm, Thursday 16pm-20pm) . 

The opening days and times (11am-18pm) of the other civic museums remain unchanged (information on link

There is no longer an obligation to book online for paid museums (Castello Sforzesco, Archaeological Museum, Museo del Novecento, GAM, Museum of Natural History, Civic Aquarium). Visitors will therefore be able to access the collections, always within the limits of the capacity foreseen for each time slot, by purchasing the ticket at the museum entrance. Reservation, however, remains recommended to allow better management of the visit and ensure entry.

Reservations remain mandatory both for entry to the Royal Palace and PAC, and for exhibitions held in museums (Sforzesco Castle, Archaeological Museum, Museum of the Twentieth Century). 

The possibility of organizing guided tours in all paid museums also returns (Sforzesco Castle, Archaeological Museum, Museum of the Twentieth Century, GAM, Natural History Museum, Civic Aquarium).

On Sunday 21 June, the European Music Festival, the stage of "Estate Sforzesca" will also open with the first evening marked by two shows.

At 16.30 pm, the first concert dedicated to "The golden age of swing", with the Civic Wind Orchestra of Milan in collaboration with Civica Jazz Band - Civic School of Music "Claudio Abbado". The first part of the show, through songs by Franco D'Andrea, Enrico Pieranunzi, Enrico Intra, Enrico Rava and Gianluigi Trovesi, will be a hymn to the Italian sound, full of rhythm and "black swing". In the second part, from the notes of Paolo Tomelleri's clarinet, the successes of the golden age of swing will resurface: from Benny Goodman to Ella Fitzgerald, from Cole Porter to Charles Trenet. 

At 21 pm "Milan and Popular Music: from time to time..." will be staged: the young musicians of the CPM Music Institute, under the direction of Franco Mussida, will try their hand at the revisited performance of dozens of international music pieces, telling the strength of the commitment of the 70s, the disengagement of the 80s, the ethnic fusion and globalization of the 90s, and the spread of social music of the 2000s, up to the present day.

Entrance is free upon reservation while places last (reservations on yesmilano.it).

“Estate Sforzesca”, promoted and coordinated by the Municipality of Milan | Culture, is the series of initiatives that accompanies the resumption of live entertainment and cultural activities in the city, proposing 80 events, including more than 40 concerts, 20 theatrical performances and 4 of dance, with free or controlled entry.

The “Estate Sforzesca” program is available on yesmilano.it/estatesforzesca