Il Castello in mano agli stranieri

The Castle, the French, the Spanish

Having fallen under French rule in 1499, the Duchy of Milan would be fiercely contended by the Habsburgs, the French and Sforzas for the following 30 years. They were difficult years for both the city and the castle. During the French occupation the Filarete Tower, which had been repurposed as a munitions store, exploded causing damage to the surrounding walls and killing the castle governor.

When Francesco II Sforza, il Moro's second son, took power the castle was repaired but remained without a tower over the city-side gate. On the 3rd March 1534 it was the setting of the marriage between Francesco II and Cristina, the daughter of the King of Denmark.

Following this grandiose event, the building would never again serve as the ducal residence. The last of the Sforzas bequeathed the Duchy of Milan to Emperor Charles V.

The Spanish fortress

Don Ferrante Gonzaga, Captain General and lieutenant of the Emperor, initiated large- scale construction on the defences of Milan and the Castle in 1549 in the form of a twelve pointed star or bastion fortification that was at the cutting edge of military architecture. The historic residence of the Sforza family was transformed into a vast garrison containing, according to drawings and literary testimony of the time, a pharmacy, a hospital, shops, a bakery, two bread ovens, a tavern, an ice house - for conserving ice, two churches and vast warehouses. The construction and maintenance of the garrison were paid for by the people of Milan.

The Spanish occupation of the castle is testified to by the armorial bearings painted in 1555 by Don Suarez de Figueroa, the castle manager under Philip II, that are still visible in room II of the Ducal Apartments and by the coats of arms decorating the ceiling of room VII, painted in commemoration of the royal wedding between Philip II and Mary Tudor (1555). The two rooms form part of the Museum of Ancient Art.

The Austrian fortress

During the Spanish War of Succession in 1706, Eugenio of Savoy conquered Milan on behalf of the Holy Roman Emperor, Joseph I. Nothing changed for the castle, except for the nationality of its occupants, and the Sforza era environments continued to fall into ruin and suffer extensive damage, with deterioration of the ceilings, frescoes and stucco decorations. The white statue of Saint John Nepomucene, the Bohemian patron saint of the Austrian army, which was commissioned of Giovanni Dugnani in 1727, is the last vestige of the Austrian occupation in the castle. It was requested by the commander of the fortress Annibale Visconti and can be seen in the Courtyard of Arms near the entrance to the Ducal Courtyard.

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