The Brera District lies just west of the Duomo and is roughly bounded by Via Pontaccio, Via Fatebenefratelli, Via dei Giardini, Via Monte di Pietà, Via Ponte Vetero and Via Mercato.
It is one of the city’s most charming and romantic neighbourhoods, with museums, markets, the Pinacoteca di Brera and its Academy of Fine Arts, bars, restaurants, cafés, and the Brera Botanical Garden.
Every third Sunday of the month, except for August (sorry, summer tourists!) the Brera Market takes place: in Via Brera and Via Fiori Chiari come antique stalls with jewellery, modern antiques and unique, unobtainable objects.
The Pinacoteca di Brera Art Gallery
On Via Brera 28 is Palazzo di Brera, which is the seat of the Brera Art Gallery, the Academy of Fine Arts, the Braidense National Library, the offices of the Astronomical and Meteorological Observatory and the Botanical Garden, and in which there is a bronze statue by Antonio Canova dedicated to Napoleon I in 1809.
Opening Times and Tickets
Open Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 8.30 am to 7.15 pm (ticket office closes at 6.40 pm).
Regular ticket from 15 euros, reduced ticket from 10 euros. Admission 2 euros for EU citizens, Switzerland, Iceland, Norway and Lichtenstein between 18 and 25 years of age.
Online booking is compulsory if you buy your ticket on your own. You can visit the Pinacoteca on your own or book a small-group private guided tour.
Free for Italian journalists, foreign journalists must register by email in the days before. Audioguide 2 euros. Free entrance on the first Sunday of the month, but if you buy online booking remains compulsory. The Pinacoteca di Brera is part of the Abbonamento Musei Lombardia.
The Pinacoteca di Brera consists of 38 rooms displaying masterpieces by Italian artists from the 14th to the 19th century and some foreign artists, including Piero della Francesca, Mantegna, Raphael, Bramante, Caravaggio, Tintoretto, Bellini, and Bronzino. In the courtyard at the entrance is a work by Canova depicting the effigy of Napoleon.
The unmissable works:
- the flagellation of Christ by Luca Signorelli,
- the Dead Christ by Andrea Mantegna,
- the sacred conversation by Piero della Francesca,
- the Marriage of the Virgin by Raphael,
- the Pietà by Giovanni Bellini,
- The Kiss by Francesco Hayez.