Milan first stepped into the
historical limelight in the fourth
century when Emperor Constantine
issued the
Edict of Milan
here, granting Christians throughout
the Roman Empire the freedom to
worship for the first time. The
city, under its charismatic bishop,
Ambrogio (St Ambrose), swiftly
became a major centre of
Christianity - many of today's
churches stand on the sites, or even
retain parts, of fourth-century
predecessors.
Medieval Milan rose to prominence
under the ruthless regime of the
Visconti dynasty, who founded what
is still the city's most spectacular
building, the florid late-Gothic Duomo
, and built the first, heavily
fortified nucleus of the Castello
- which, under their successors, the
Sforza, was extended to house what
became one of the most luxurious
courts of the Renaissance. This was
a period of much building and
rebuilding, notably under the last
Sforza, Lodovico, who employed the
architect Bramante to improve
the city's churches and Leonardo
da Vinci to paint The Last
Supper and design war-machines
to aid him in his struggles with
foreign powers and other Italian
states. Leonardo's inventions didn't
prevent Milan falling to the French
in 1499, marking the beginning of
almost four centuries of foreign
rule. Later, the Austrian Habsburgs
took control, during their time
commissioning the Teatro della
Scala and founding the Brera
art gallery, which, during Milan's
short spell under Napoleon, was
filled with paintings looted from
churches and private collections.
Mussolini made his mark on the
city too. Arrive by train and you
emerge into the massive white
megalith of the central station
built on his orders; the main
tourist office is housed in one half
of the pompous twin Arengario
, from which he would address crowds
gathered in Piazza Duomo. And with
stark irony it was on the now major
road junction of Piazzale Loreto
that the dead dictator was strung up
for display to the baying mob.
