Sempione Park

Everybody has done at least once a nice relaxing walk in the greenery of Parco Sempione, but few really know the immense treasures hidden within it.

Built on the former parade ground behind the Sforza Castle, Parco Sempione was designed in English style by the architect Emilio Alemagna in the late nineteenth century and occupies an area of 386,000 m².

Headquarters of the Milanese leisure time, the Park hosted major events such as the Reunited Expositions of 1894, the 1906 International Exposition, which left the beautiful Art Nouveau building of the Civic Aquarium and, since the Palace was built in 1933 dell'Arte, better known as the Triennale, was also the setting for the Triennial Contemporary Art Exhibitions.

Thanks to this age-old relationship with the art world, walking in the Sempione Park means still today parading through a long series of historical and representative buildings: among ponds, bushes, bridges, canals and flower beds we find the Arena Civica, realized by Luigi Canonica in 1907 and still one of the major monuments of Milan, the Arco della Pace with its long and tormented construction story, the Littoria Tower now known as Torre Branca di Giò Ponti from which you can admire a panorama without equal. There is no lack of important sculptures scattered here and there in the green, where the most famous are the bronze mermaids of the San Damiano Bridge and the sculptures of the Mysterious Baths by Giorgio de Chirico, the great master of metaphysical art.

The guided tour will take you to discover these and other treasures hidden in the greenery of the Park, telling its history, artistic events and curiosities.