Institutional portal - Municipality of Milan

It is one of the first examples of "English" gardens created in Milan commissioned by Count Lodovico Barbiano di Belgiojoso, a leading figure of the Milanese nobility and of the Habsburg court. The project is by the Viennese architect Leopold Pollack, a pupil of Piermarini.

Like the villa, the garden is influenced by innovative dictates, very original for the time. The supervision of Count Ettore Silva, a great garden expert and author of the treatise "On the art of English gardens" of 1801, was decisive.
During the Napoleonic period the villa took the name of "Royal Villa" and from 1921 it became the property of the Municipality which made it the seat of the Gallery of Modern Art.

The garden, according to the canons of landscape style, has an asymmetrical compositional layout and underlines the triumph of the curved line over the straight one.

Museums and architectural heritage

The garden includes some significant buildings: the Gallery of Modern Art (GAM), an example of neoclassical architecture; adjacent to the garden is the Contemporary Art Pavilion (PAC), built by Ignazio Gardella in 1954 and rebuilt by him following the fire in 1993; “follies” of literary derivation in the form of ruins (Laura's sarcophagus, Count Ugolino's Tower, Tempietto delle Parche).

Sculptural groups

“The saint, the young man, the wise man” by Adolf Wildt and “The seven wise men” by Fausto Melotti, located at the point where the PAC interpenetrates the garden.

Among the tree species

• holly (Ilex aquifolium)
• hornbeam (Carpinus betulus)
• Himalayan cedar (Cedrus deodara)
• flowering cherry (Prunus serrulata 'Kanzan')
• bald cypress (Taxodium distichum)
• groups of magnolias (M. grandiflora, M. soulangeana, M. hypoleuca)
• black walnut (Juglans nigra)
• black alder (Alnus glutinosa)
• yew (Taxus baccata)

Among the most unique trees are a false lotus (Diospyros lotus) and the coffee tree (Gymnocladus dioica), as well as a particular specimen of hackberry (Celtis australis), visible at the entrance, with a polychrome trunk.

Among the shrubby species

• hydrangeas (Hydrangea macrophylla, H. quercifolia, H. paniculata)
• pittosporum (Pittosporum tobira)
• rhododendrons (Rhododendron spp)
• viburnums (Viburnum spp), forsythia (Forsizia x intermedia).

Among the perennial herbaceous and bulbous plants

• bergenia (Bergenia cordifolia)
• daylily (Hemerocallis flava)
• patches of wild garlic (Allium ursinum)
• narcissus (Narcissus pseudonarcissus)

Fauna

Ducks in the pond.

Water and surroundings

A small waterfall flows from a group of rocks, flowing into a stream that crosses the entire garden to flow into a lake shaded by trees with a small island in the center with a small circular temple, dedicated to Love, the work of Ettore Silva.

Culture and Culture

• Botanical routes: there is a botanical route, organized by the Volunteer Ecological Guards, which includes a guide with the description of the main essences
• Protagonist trees: among the rarest species: the false lotus (Diospyros lotus) and the coffee tree (Gymnocladus dioica).
  At the entrance to the garden you are welcomed by a particular specimen of hackberry (Celtis australis) with a polycormic stem.

Wellbeing and sport

It is an equipped area

Break and coffee

Kiosks and bars: there are no fixed structures but occasionally mobile kiosks

Utilities and Services

• Dog area: dogs are not allowed
• Security: the garden is fenced and normally manned by GEVs; Entrance is reserved for children accompanied by adults.
• Flooring: gravel

Working hours:

• from May to October: 9:00 - 19:00
• November to April: 9am - 00pm