The Royal Palace, located in the historic center of Milan on Piazza del Duomo, in the 12th century was merely a small town hall. But when the Visconti family came to power, they turned it into a magnificent ducal palazzo adorned with mosaics and frescoes by the great Giotto.
After the Visconti family, the palace was home to the Sforza dukes, the Spanish governor, and finally the Habsburgs, who transformed the palazzo even further. When architect Giuseppe Piermarini gave the palace a Neapolitan style, this place became a true center of court life.
Then Napoleon made Milan the capital of the Cisalpine Republic and settled his adopted son – Eugene de Beauharnais – in the palace, who spent enormous sums on balls and entertainments and, they say, was loved by the Milanese precisely for that.
By the beginning of the 20th century, the palace building was already falling into decline, and a large-scale reconstruction was carried out, in which Benito Mussolini personally took part. Alas, after such intervention, not a trace of the palazzo's former splendor remained.
During the Second World War, the palace was severely damaged by bombing. Only in the late 1950s did the city authorities turn their attention to this historic monument and begin its restoration, which was completed only at the beginning of the 21st century.
Today, the former royal palace houses the city museum and often hosts various themed exhibitions.
