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Things to see in Monza

Every monument worth your time in Monza, photographed, described, and matched to its tours.

All the monuments in Monza

The landmarks and masterpieces worth planning a day around.

The striped front and tall campanile of Monza CathedralDuomo di MonzaMonza CathedralIron Crown of Lombardy, Zavattari fresco cycle, striped Gothic facade, royal coronations since CharlemagneMonza's cathedral was founded, tradition says, by the Lombard queen Theodelinda around 595, and its treasury still guards the object that made the town a royal stage: the Corona Ferrea, a slender gold and jeweled circlet built around a thin iron band that legend holds was forged from a nail of the Crucifixion. Kings from Charlemagne to Napoleon Bonaparte were crowned with it as King of Italy, the last coronation in 1805. In Theodelinda's own chapel, the Zavattari family covered the walls in 1444 with a fresco cycle of 45 scenes from her life, painted in the courtly, gold-heavy style known as International Gothic. The striped marble facade outside, added between the 1300s and 1600s, mixes Gothic tracery with a later Baroque portal.Plan the visit
The Monza guide

More within reach

Monuments a day trip away, elsewhere in Lombardy.

  1. Milan Cathedral’s marble facade and pinnacles beside the arch of the Galleria in Piazza del Duomo at golden hourMilanMilan Cathedral135 marble spires, the golden Madonnina, rooftop terraces, six centuries of construction
  2. La Scala's neoclassical front on its Milan piazza at golden hourMilanTeatro alla ScalaVerdi and Rossini premieres, Toscanini's 1946 reopening, the Museo Teatrale, its opera and ballet season
  3. The still piazza of Sabbioneta, one prince's ideal citySabbionetaSabbionetaVespasiano Gonzaga's planned Renaissance grid, the Teatro all'Antica, star-shaped walls, the Galleria degli Antichi
  4. Terracotta gabled front and side of Santa Maria delle Grazie with the tribune rising behindMilanUNESCOSanta Maria delle GrazieLeonardo's Last Supper in the former refectory; Bramante's Renaissance tribune; Solari's three-aisled church; Montorfano's Crucifixion on the opposite end wall.
  5. The brick ramparts and Filarete Tower of Sforza Castle, MilanMilanSforza CastleSforza ducal fortress, Michelangelo's last Pieta, Leonardo's Sala delle Asse, Sempione park axis
  6. Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, ItalyMilanGalleria Vittorio Emanuele IIGlass-domed arcade, Milan's drawing room, mosaic bull luck tradition, Duomo-to-La Scala passage
  7. The double loggia courtyard of the Brera, Napoleon in bronze at its heartMilanPinacoteca di BreraMantegna's Dead Christ, Raphael's Marriage of the Virgin, Hayez's Kiss, Napoleonic collection
  8. The marble front of the Certosa di Pavia, the Visconti charterhouseCertosa di PaviaCertosa di PaviaPolychrome marble facade, Visconti and Sforza tombs, Grand Cloister monks' cells, Bergognone art
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