Opening hours
These times come from the City of Milan’s hours and tickets page, which is in Italian. We checked it on 14 October 2026. Hours can change, so look again before you travel.
- Museums: closed Mondays. Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00 to 17:30.
- Ticket office and last entry: the ticket office closes at 16:30, and last entry to each section is also 16:30.
- Courtyards: free entry every day, 07:00 to 19:30.
- Infopoint: Tuesday to Sunday, 09:30 to 17:30.
- Closed days: the museums also close on 25 December, 1 January and 1 May. The castle warns that some areas may close temporarily.
Tickets in brief
A museums ticket costs €10, or €5 for reduced rates, and is valid for the whole day it is issued. It covers every castle museum with one entry per section. You can buy it at the ticket office or online, and it is not refundable.
The reduced rate applies to university and fine-arts students, visitors aged 65 and over, and EU citizens aged 18 to 25. Under-18s go free, as do disabled visitors with one companion. The museums are free for everyone on the first Sunday of each month. Visitors up to 25 also enter free on the second Tuesday of each month. Free visitors still need a ticket, which you choose as “ingresso omaggio” online. Prices checked October 2026. Tickets and tours has the full picture.
Passes can work out cheaper if you plan several museums. The Tourist Museum Card is €20 for three consecutive days and covers Milan’s civic museums, one entry each. The Milano Museo Card is €15 for a year and is named. The YesMilano City Pass costs €60 (Standard) or €90 (All Inclusive) and includes three days of public transport plus the Duomo, the castle and more. Check what each covers before you buy.
How long you need
Our own rough allowances, not official figures:
- Courtyards only: 20 to 30 minutes.
- Highlights: about 90 minutes for the Rondanini Pietà, the Museum of Ancient Art and the Pinacoteca. The inside the castle guide explains what each one holds.
- Most of the museums: three to four hours.
Last entry is 16:30 and the museums close at 17:30, so a full visit needs a start by about 13:00 at the latest. The guided visit on this page takes about 1.5 hours.
The ramparts walk
The Merlate Panoramiche is a walk along the castle’s battlements, and it is a separate ticket from the museums: €10, or €5 reduced, with the same free categories. It runs Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00, with last entry at 17:00. Groups of up to 25 go in every 20 minutes with a member of staff but no guide. Guided “secret routes” through the underground Strada Coperta della Ghirlanda passage and along the ramparts are run separately by a concessionaire, Ad Artem, so book those through the castle site.
What to skip if you are short of time
We would drop the musical instruments, the applied arts and the furniture rooms first, and keep the Rondanini Pietà and the Museum of Ancient Art. The Ancient Egypt gallery is covered by your ticket, but the audioguide does not cover it, so go only if you have a particular interest. The inside the castle guide explains what each section holds.
Best time of day
The museums open at 10:00, and arriving then gives you the rooms before most groups. That is our judgement, not a measured crowd count. Expect more people on the free first Sunday of the month.
Because the courtyards stay open until 19:30, they work as an evening stroll after you have seen something else. They also open at 07:00, long before the museums, so they suit an early walk. On Mondays the museums are shut, so only the courtyards and the park behind them are open to you.
The free courtyards and the park
You can walk through the courtyards without a ticket. The castle sits beside Parco Sempione, which Wikipedia says was laid out on its former parade grounds. Our Sempione Park page covers it.
Bags, pets and services
- Pets: allowed in the outdoor areas only.
- Bags: we could not find a published bag or cloakroom policy on the pages we could open. Ask at the Infopoint, which opens at 09:30 on museum days.
- Audioguide: €5 from the bookshop, in Italian, English, French, Spanish, German and Russian. It does not cover the Ancient Egypt gallery.
- Guided tours: the castle runs walk-up museum tours every weekend at 11:00, Saturday in English and Sunday in Italian. They cost €20 including the museum ticket. Meet at the Infopoint at 10:45.
Accessibility
Disabled visitors and one companion enter free, but still need a ticket (choose “ingresso omaggio” online). We could not open the castle’s accessibility page, so we cannot say which routes are step-free or where lifts are. Check that page or contact the castle before you go, especially if you plan to see the upper floors.
Guided visits
Two tours on this page are easy to confuse. The first includes castle and museum entry, a certified guide and a small group, and ends at Michelangelo’s Rondanini Pietà. The second pairs a Last Supper ticket with an art historian guide and a walk through the castle courtyards only, so it does not include the museums. Pick the first if the castle museums are your goal. The Last Supper pairing suits you if Leonardo’s mural is the main aim. Read the Last Supper page first, because slots are limited.
A half-day route
This plan suits a Tuesday to Sunday, and it is our suggestion rather than an official route.
- 09:30: arrive at the main gate. The Infopoint opens, so ask about any areas closed that day. The ticket office opens with the museums at 10:00.
- 10:00: buy your ticket, walk the first courtyard and visit the Rondanini Pietà museum, which opens off it.
- 10:30: cross to the Corte Ducale for the Museum of Ancient Art on the ground floor, then the Pinacoteca upstairs.
- 12:30: see the musical instruments and applied arts in the Rocchetta if you have energy, or skip to lunch.
- Afternoon: book the ramparts walk if you want it (separate ticket, entries every 20 minutes, last entry 17:00), or stroll into Parco Sempione.
Finish in Brera for a long lunch, or head to the Duomo and Galleria Vittorio Emanuele. Stay somewhere nearby? See where to stay, and getting there for transport.
