Palazzo Carmagnola

Palazzo Carmagnola is a Milanese palace that has rarely held the same role for long. The Visconti family built it in the early fifteenth century as a secondary residence.

In 1415 the palace passed as a gift to Francesco Bussone, known as Carmagnola, who renovated it substantially between 1420 and 1425. After his execution in 1432 the house changed hands again and again. Later, under Ludovico il Moro, it gained embellishments from Bramante and Leonardo da Vinci. In the seventeenth century it served the city as a public granary. The Banco di Sant'Ambrogio took over in the eighteenth, and in 1786 it rose to become the municipal seat, the Broletto Novissimo. The Napoleonic era made it a prefectural department, and after Italian unification the state moved in through an exchange with Palazzo Marino.

The twentieth century brought the sharpest turn of all. During the Second World War the notorious Ettore Muti Legion occupied the building. In 1947 Paolo Grassi and Giorgio Strehler made it the home of the newly founded Piccolo Teatro di Milano. That passage from wartime violence to playhouse stands as a symbol of Milan's rebirth. Today the palace houses the Sala Grassi of the Piccolo Teatro alongside municipal offices. In the courtyard you can still find a sundial credited to Leonardo himself.