Sforza Castle Milan: €10 for every museum, free courtyards, the Pietà Rondanini and the first-Sunday day

💡 The Short Version: The Sforza Castle’s courtyards are free every day, 7:00 to 19:30, and one €10 ticket covers every museum, including Michelangelo’s Pietà Rondanini and the Ancient Egypt Gallery. The museums are closed on Mondays and open Tuesday to Sunday 10:00 to 17:30, with the last entry to each section at 16:30. The first Sunday of the month is free for everyone. The Panoramic Battlements are a separate €10 ticket. Leonardo’s painted room, the Sala delle Asse, is under restoration and is shown only in digital exhibitions. Buy at milanocastello.it: the GetYourGuide ticket with an audio guidead is €20. Prices are in euros. Or book a tour: the Sforza Castle and Pietà Rondanini tourad is from €39.92 (GetYourGuide).

Tickets and prices

Prices are the Comune di Milano’s, from the castle’s tickets page and the Civic Museums shop. Searches for the castle’s tickets return several sites with its name in the web address that are not the Comune’s.

• One ticket for every museum. It is valid for the day it is issued, includes the Ancient Egypt Gallery and allows one entry to each section. It cannot be refunded. Holders of free tickets still need one: choose “ingresso omaggio” when booking online.
• First Sunday of the month: free for everyone. The second Tuesday of the month is free for visitors up to 25.
• The Battlements run in groups of up to 25 every 20 minutes, Tuesday to Sunday 10:00 to 17:00 for the last entry. The walkway is self-guided with attendants and has a lift, so strollers and reduced mobility are fine.
• Secret routes: Ad Artem, the castle’s concessionaire, runs guided tours of the battlements, from age 8, and of the covered Ghirlanda road underground, from age 10, and two interactive investigations. The castle’s “Percorsi segreti” page has the prices.

Where to buy

GetYourGuide’s prices are its lowest “from” prices.

Tours worth paying for

The castle has no queue that a ticket skips, so the tours are about the guide. Prices are GetYourGuide’s lowest “from” prices, per person.

Castle and Pietà Rondanini with a guide

From €39.92 · 1.5 hours · 4.6 stars from 1,452 reviews

Milan: Sforza Castle and Michelangelo’s Pietà Rondanini Tourad is run by Hidden Experiences and includes the museums ticket. Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.

Entry ticket with a digital audio guide

From €20 · 4.0 stars from 3,200 reviews

Milan: Sforza Castle Entry Ticket with Digital Audio Guidead is run by Vox City International. The €5 above the museum’s own ticket buys the audio guide on your phone.

Last Supper and the castle’s courtyards

From €99 · 2 hours · 4.7 stars from 1,586 reviews

Milan: The Last Supper and Sforza Castle Guided Tourad walks the castle’s courtyards, not its museums, after the Last Supper. The Last Supper page has the release dates for the museum’s own ticket. Free cancellation up to 3 days ahead.

What to see

The Sforza Castle was the Milanese seat of the Sforza dukes, and Leonardo worked here for Ludovico il Moro. A guided visit of the museums takes 1.5 hours; on your own, allow about two.

The Filarete Tower of the Sforza Castle, seen from the courtyard. Photo: Paolobon140, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

1. The courtyards. Free and open all day, with no ticket.
2. The Pietà Rondanini. Michelangelo’s last work, made in the final ten years of his life and left unfinished. Since 2015 it has stood in the castle’s former Spanish Hospital, where soldiers were once nursed, in a display that lets you walk round it.
3. The Museo d’Arte Antica. Sculpture and arms and armour, in the Ducal Court. Room VIII, on the ground floor, is Leonardo’s Sala delle Asse, which is under restoration and shown only through four digital exhibitions, so it is not the room to come for.
4. The Pinacoteca and the other museums. The Pinacoteca, the Furniture and Wooden Sculpture Museum, the Applied Arts Museum, the Musical Instruments Museum and the Ancient Egypt Gallery are on the same ticket. The Prehistoric and Protohistoric section is closed.
5. The Panoramic Battlements. The patrol walk along the defensive walls gives a view of the castle’s defences and of the city skyline, for a separate ticket.

A courtyard of the Sforza Castle, with the arcade reflected in a long pool. Photo: Manuel Pagani - Mm4mm, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

The order that works: the Museo d’Arte Antica and the Pietà first, then the Pinacoteca and the Ancient Egypt Gallery, then the Battlements if you bought the ticket. What to skip if you are short of time: the Applied Arts Museum and the Musical Instruments Museum. Leonardo da Vinci in Milan lists what Leonardo left in the castle’s archive and what is on show elsewhere.

The battlemented walls and a round corner tower of the Sforza Castle. Photo: Sdkb, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Hours, rules and getting there

• Getting there: metro M1 to Cairoli or Cadorna, or M2 to Lanza or Cadorna. Trams 1, 2, 4, 12 and 14 and buses 50, 57, 58 and 85 also stop nearby. Milan public transport has the fares.
• Closed sections: some areas can close for works and the hours can change; the Comune’s notices page lists them.
• The one thing that ruins a visit: arriving on a Monday, when the museums are shut, or after 16:30, when the last entry to each section has gone.

What to book in Milan has the closed days for every sight. The Milan historic centre walk ends beside the castle at Cadorna. The Last Supper is also closed on Mondays. Brera is the neighbouring district. Free things to do in Milan covers the castle courtyards and the first Sunday. Best museums in Milan has the other civic museums, and Milan City Pass: is it worth it? shows when the Tourist Museum Card pays. Milan with kids has the battlements’ age rules. Best views in Milan lists the Battlements among the viewpoints. 3 days in Milan puts the castle on a Tuesday morning. The Oh Bej! Oh Bej! fair is held at the castle: see the Milan Christmas markets 2026. For a bed, see where to stay in Milan.