Pinacoteca di Brera

In 1773, following the dissolution of the Jesuits, the College of Brera became state property and Empress Maria Theresa of Austria wanted to make it home to some of the most advanced cultural institutes in the city.

The person in charge of the planning and continuation of the works was Giuseppe Piermarini, one of the protagonists of Neoclassicism in Italy. He was responsible for the arrangement of the library (a hall is visible from room I of the Pinacoteca), the solemn entrance portal on via Brera, and the completion of the courtyard, at the center of which was placed in 1859 the bronze statue depicting Napoleon in his guise of Mars peacemaker, cast in Rome on the model of Antonio Canova.

Throughout the nineteenth century loggias, courtyards, atria and corridors were destined to host monuments that publicly celebrated artists, benefactors, men of culture and science linked to the Braidense institution. Among the best examples of this very rich and little-known decor are the monuments to Cesare Beccaria by Pompeo Marchesi and Giuseppe Parini by Gaetano Monti, visible on the staircase leading to the Pinacoteca.

The building not only houses the Pinacoteca, but contains a unique set of Milanese cultural institutions: the Brera Academy of Fine Arts, one of the oldest schools in Italy; the Lombard Institute established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1797 with the task of collecting discoveries, and perfecting the arts and sciences; the Braidense National Library founded in 1770 by Empress Maria Theresa of Austria with a heritage of over 1,500,000 units including manuscripts, photographic prints, periodicals and audiovisual materials; the Astronomical Observatory, a world-renowned research institute and the Botanical Garden, created in 1774 under the empress Maria Theresa of Austria.