Monza, Treasures of Monza

A renowned attraction in Monza, main city of Brianza, is Villa Reale, with its beautiful gardens and a wide park. This building, designed by the architect Piermarini for the then Governor of Lombard Veneto Ferdinand of Austria, son of the empress Maria Teresa, was started in 1777 and concluded in only three years. This luxurious residence hosted Austrian and French governors in the Napoleonic period and then became the residence of the Savoia family in the last decades of the 18th century.
Through its neoclassical shapes, the structure recalls the typical design of delight villas, with a central body and symmetrical wings. It is surrounded by its royal gardens and by the 685 hectares of the Parco di Monza, which includes the renowned autodrome and Villa Mirabello. Designed by the architect Gerolamo Quadrio and started in 1656, it is the oldest building in the park. Going southwards, you will get to the old city centre. On Piazza Roma stands the ancient Palazzo Cumunale dell’Arengario, a building which was built in the 13th century in Gothic style and which shows a bell tower built one century later. Close to it is the renowned Cathedral (Duomo) of Longobard origins. The current Gothic Basilica, which was started in May in the year 1300, shows a frontal prothyrum surmounted by a wide 16-sector rose window inside a fully carved frame.
Beside it, in via Lambro, is the Museum and Treasure of the Cathedral of Monza (Museo e Tesoro del Duomo di Monza). Your multi-level visit starts from the chapel, where the body of the Queen Teodolinda as well as the renowned Iron Crown (Corona Ferrea) are. With this diadem, kings and emperors such as Charlemagne, Federico Barbarossa, Carlos V of Spain and Napoleon Bonaparte were crowned. Both the exhibition of Longobard works and the one related to the Visconti family are very rich. The museum covers a time span to date including also a collection of contemporary art. Going back northwards, it is worth seeing the Church of Santa Maria del Carrobiolo, built in the 13th-century and renovated from 1573. If you keep going in the same direction you will reach the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Grace (Santa Maria delle Grazie), a 15th-century complex which is a pilgrim destination built on the ancient road to Lecco, on the left bank of the Lambro River.