Cimitero Monumentale
Milan's most serious open-air sculpture collection happens to be a cemetery.
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Opened in 1866, this is where Milan's industrial dynasties hired the best Italian artists — Lucio Fontana, Giò Ponti, Medardo Rosso — to design their tombs. Over 150 years of sculpture sit side by side with Greek-temple mausoleums, obelisks, and a rationalist BBPR memorial to roughly 800 Milanese killed in Nazi concentration camps.
What to look for
- The Famedio, the Neo-Medieval marble Hall of Fame at the entrance holding the tomb of novelist Alessandro Manzoni
- A scaled-down replica of Trajan's Column standing among the obelisks and Greek-temple style tombs
- The BBPR group's memorial to approximately 800 Milanese killed in Nazi concentration camps, positioned at the center of the grounds
Before heading in, check the permanent exhibition near the entrance — prints, photographs, and maps trace the cemetery's history, and two battery-operated electric hearses from the 1920s are on display.
Cimitero Monumentale is one of 35 sights worth the detour in Milan, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Milan pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Milan
- San Siro — Giuseppe Meazza StadiumTwo rival clubs, one ground: the 75,817-seat arena where Milan's football fault line runs.
- Milan Cathedral (Duomo di Milano)Construction started in 1386 and the final details were finished in 1965 — the city couldn't stop adding to it.
- La ScalaThe gallery gods who booed tenor Roberto Alagna off stage mid-Aida in 2006 still haunt the loggione — the cheapest seats in opera's most feared house.
- Santa Maria delle GrazieThe wall Leonardo painted on was sand-bagged against Allied bombs in 1943 — and held.
- Sforza CastleLeonardo da Vinci painted the ceiling here. Bramante did the walls down the hall.
- Galleria Vittorio Emanuele IIThe direct ancestor of every enclosed shopping mall on earth — and there is still a worn hole in the floor where Milanese spin a heel for luck.