These historic House-Museums were originally family homes. However, thanks to the foresight of their inhabitants/collectors – whether famous or unknown, noble or poor - they became precious museums. These aptly named museums narrate the personal, social, economic, dynastic, collecting and entrepreneurial stories of their inhabitants and, therefore, also the history and culture of their times and the landscape of the territory in which they are deeply rooted. 

 

The Network of Milan’s Historic House was created in 2008: a city museum network with the aim of promoting the historical, cultural and artistic Milanese heritage through the lives of some exemplary residents. The house museums comprised in the circuit, Poldi Pezzoli, Bagatti Valsecchi, Boschi Di Stefano and Villa Necchi Campiglio are historic houses belonging to Lombard families. The evocative interiors re-enact the past with traditional furnishings of those times; they showcase precious treasures such as paintings, pottery, furniture and gold and silver objects.  Inimitable collections of cultural heritage that the owners collected during their lives and that have been generously donated to the city.

Museo Poldi Pezzoli

The Poldi Pezzoli Museum may look like a museum of long tradition, considering the wealth of its collections. In actual fact, it began its life as a private home. A highly original home: all the interiors were filled with decoration, works of art and furniture, in all sorts of shapes and colours, creating very unusual visual effects.

 

YesMilano City Pass

This attraction is included in YesMilano City Pass: discover more

Museo Bagatti Valsecchi

Fausto and Giuseppe Bagatti Valsecchi decided to build their house on the model of 16th-century Italian mansions. A curious ambition for two Milano lawyers living in the 19th century.

 

YesMilano City Pass

This attraction is included in YesMilano City Pass: discover more

Villa Necchi Campiglio

Discover the Milano of the first half of the nineteenth century - its customs, its high society, its etiquette. This is Villa Necchi Campiglio.

 

YesMilano City Pass

This attraction is included in YesMilano City Pass: discover more

Casa Museo Boschi Di Stefano

The Boschi Di Stefano House Museum houses masterpieces by Carrà, Fontana, De Chirico, Sironi, De Pisis and Boccioni.

ListenToMi: Milan and the house museum in a podcast

ListenToMI is a podcast that tells the story of the city in 24 episodes.

Musicians, architects, designers, fashion designers, writers, and graphic artists, involved in the creative industries of Milano, are joined by critics and historians in order to talk about the city they live and knows better.

 

The result is not a simple audio guide through Milano’s main attractions, but rather an “emotional invitation” to discover Milano starting from six main themes: contemporary art, architecture, design, literature, music, and fashion.

 

In each itinerary, relationships are created between the museum houses and other cultural places in the city, in order to offer the independent and curious traveler the possibility to deepen their understanding of Milano through unexpected and evocative points of view.

Casa del Manzoni - Museo Manzoniano

In the house where Alessandro Manzoni, author of The Betrothed, once lived, everything seems to be frozen in time. An evocative atmosphere persists in the rooms where the author wrote some of the most influential works in Italian literature.

Casa delle Arti - Spazio Alda Merini

Alda Merini was one of the most important and prolific Italian poets of the twentieth century. Born and raised in Milan in the working-class area of the Navigli, she was one of the most important representatives of Milanese language and culture in our times.

Museo Mangini Bonomi

A unique museum designed by the Milanese real-estate entrepreneur Emilio Mangini, who described himself as "an inquisitive and tireless collector". He planned it to salvage and bequeath evidence of how man lived in the past, of his private life, his work and his pastimes.