The reassessment of the artistic heritage of Milan and province has led to a more precise definition of those well-defined historical periods during which the city was planned and developed and its most important monuments erected. There is Roman era Milan, hidden within museums or inside churches, palaces, in the excavations for the underground or often squeezed between modern buildings. The period of major development was the Renaissance, which coincided with princely rule in Milan. During this period, the Castello Sforzesco and the Torre del Filarete were built, with Parco Sempione to the rear, right in the heart of the city within view of the Cathedral, that great symbol of the Milan’s power in that era, and a fine example of the Gothic style. At the side of Piazza Duomo is the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, considered the “drawing room” of Milan for its elegance and for interior shops. One of the best-known palaces is the neo-classical Palazzo Reale, alongside the Cathedral, which now hosts art exhibitions.
Not far away is the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, with its rich collection of canvasses by great artists such as Caravaggio, Titian, Raphael. The Pinacoteca di Brera, in the district of the same name, hosts one of the major collections of Italian paintings, including masterpieces like the Cristo Morto by Andrea Mantenga, and the Museum Poldi Pezzoli is regarded as one of the largest museums in Europe for the number of works accommodated there. Hidden away is Santa Maria delle Grazie, a church bearing the work of Bramante (in the church and old sacristy) and Leonardo da Vinci,whose famous masterpiece L’Ultima Cena (The Last Supper) is housed in the refectory of the convent annexed to the church.
So much artistic wealth should not overshadow the nearby towns in the province, which also boast artistic treasures: castles, villas, abbeys and palaces. One of the most important is Monza with its Villa Reale, its park and its Cathedral.
In Corbetta, the Casa Corbellino or Castelletto is a typical example of a building built over the remains of a castle and then restored and extended. In Novate Milanese, the Casa de’ Busti and the Oratorio dei Santi Nazaro e Celso (Gesio`) are typical examples of a nobleman’s house and an oratory dating back to the sixteenth century. Of great interest is a monument in Abbiategrasso, the church of Santa Maria Nuova, whose facade is adorned with the large pronaos designed by Bramante. Just a few kilometres away, on high ground dominating the Ticino Valley, stands the Abbey of Morimondo, a good example of Cistercian architecture from the twelfth century.

Milan’s medieval abbeys are of great interest: Chiaravalle and Morimondo of the Cistercian order, Viboldone and Mirasole of the Humiliati. North of the regional capital, the elegant villas offer parks and nymphaeums of incomparable beauty; to the east of the city, on the river Adda, art meets nature and offers magnificent examples of industrial architecture inserted in the natural scenery that surrounds it: the hydroelectric power station of Taccani at Trezzo Sull’Adda is an example of this.
Castles are another part of this territory’s riches. The Castello Borromeo d’Adda stands on the river banks of the Muzza at Cassano d’Adda dating from the ninth century, where restoration work has uncovered frescos from the school of Giotto; in Legnano, the Castello di San Giorgio was built in the thirteenth century on a pre-existing Augustinian convent; in Cusago, the Castello Visconteo is regarded as a major example of castle architecture in the region. 
In the southern Milan area, there are San Colombano al Lambro and the Castello Belgioioso, as well as Casalpusterlengo with the crenellated tower of Pusterla.
There is also a greener Milan of Arcadian beauty, with winding rivers like the Adda that forms rapids and canyons in the northern area of Trezzo; and the Ticino, which crosses lands with an abundance of woods and small islands, protected by the Natural Freshwater Park, perhaps the largest in Europe. The whole area is traversed by channelled, often subterranean waters first created by the medieval monks, whose labour improved the Po Valley. Later,Leonardi Da Vinci lived here under the Sforza dynasty, inventing a system to regulate the water levels of the canals, the famous Navigli Milanesi, to make them navigable.