Sforza Castle Tickets Explained

The free half and the paid half

The Castello Sforzesco is two places inside one set of walls. The courtyards are public space. You walk in under the Filarete Tower from Piazza Castello, and no one asks for a ticket. They open at 7am and close at 7.30pm, seven days a week.

That free half is bigger than you might expect. It gives you the Cortile delle Armi, the great first courtyard with its late-Roman sarcophagi and the Ospedale Spagnolo along one side. Beyond it lie the courtyards of the Rocchetta and the Corte Ducale. A caption trail of 133 works runs round the courtyards and the perimeter, free to read.

The museums are the paid half. They open Tuesday to Sunday at 10am. The ticket office shuts at 4.30pm, and 4.30pm is also the last entry to each museum sector. Everything in this guide is about that half: what gets you in, what it costs, and when you pay nothing.

Keep the split in mind when you read a tour title. A walk that "visits" the castle may spend its time in the free courtyards and never buy the museum ticket. If you want someone else to hold the ticket and explain what you see, pick a sforzesco castle tour with museum entry in the fare.

Every way in, priced

Here is every route into the castle, what each one opens, and whether you get your money back if your plans change.

Two things stand out. Only the tours refund, and they all do so up to 24 hours ahead. And the cheapest paid way into the museums is still the Comune's own €10 ticket. The rest of this guide is about when you should pay more, and when you should pay nothing at all.

What does the €10 ticket open?

One full ticket opens every museum in the castle. That means the Museo Pietà Rondanini, the Museo d'Arte Antica with the Armoury and the ducal rooms, and the Pinacoteca. It also covers the Decorative Arts museum with the Trivulzio tapestries, the Musical Instruments museum, the Furniture and Wooden Sculpture museum and the Galleria Antico Egitto. The prehistory section of the archaeology museum is on the ticket too, but it is closed for re-arrangement right now.

The ticket is valid on the day it is issued, with one entry to each museum sector. So plan your order before you start, and finish each sector before you move on. Two hours is a sensible minimum, and three is comfortable.

Michelangelo's last sculpture has its own building. The Pietà Rondanini stands in the former Spanish hospital on the Cortile delle Armi, with its own desk and its own lockers. It is still on the same €10 ticket. You can buy at either desk, the Museo d'Arte Antica entrance or the Pietà atrium, and your ticket works at both.

Two things the ticket will not get you. The first is the Merlate Panoramiche, the battlement walk, which is a separate ticket. The second is the Sala delle Asse, the room Leonardo painted for Ludovico il Moro in 1498. It is closed while its restoration continues, so plan your visit around the ducal rooms that are open: the Ducal Chapel of 1473, built for a choir of 22 singers, sits a few rooms along. The full room-by-room list is on the museums page.

Who gets in free, and on which days?

More people than you might think. Two days a month are free, and several groups never pay at all.

• Everyone, on the first Sunday of every month.
• Anyone up to 25, on the second Tuesday of every month.
• Every day: ages 0–17 and secondary-school students; a visitor with disabilities and one companion; licensed EU tour guides and interpreters; schoolteachers; ICOM members; Ministry of Culture officials; and holders of the Abbonamento Musei Lombardia, the Tourist Museum Card or the Milano Museo Card.

Free does not mean ticketless. If you qualify, you still collect a ticket, either at the desk or by choosing "ingresso omaggio" in the online shop. Doing that online saves you a queue at the counter.

The next free first Sundays are 4 October, 1 November and 6 December 2026, then 3 January 2027. The next free second Tuesdays for under-25s are 13 October, 10 November and 8 December 2026. The best-time guide sets those dates against the rest of the calendar.

Who pays the €5 reduced rate?

Four groups pay half. University and fine-arts academy students do. So do visitors aged 65 and over, and employees of the Comune di Milano. EU citizens aged 18 to 25 pay €5 as well, and non-EU citizens of the same age qualify where their own country offers the same in return.

Bring the document that proves it: a student card, a passport, an ID card. The desk checks every reduction. And if you are travelling with a teenager, do not buy them a reduced ticket. Under-18s go free, so collect a free one instead.

At the desk or online: which should you use?

The Comune sells its own ticket two ways, at the museum desk and in its online shop. Both charge €10 and €5. Neither refunds, so the choice is about convenience, not price.

Use the desk if your day is loose. You can decide on the morning, pay, and walk in. Use the online shop if your plan is fixed, or if you want your free ticket in hand before you arrive. Either way, buy before 4.30pm, when the office closes.

There are two desks, and one ticket works at both. Coming by the red M1, get off at Cairoli: the museum ticket office is 200 metres away. Coming from Cadorna, where the M1, the M2 and the railway meet, you are about 350 metres from the Pietà Rondanini desk. That is the one to use if you want to start with Michelangelo. The walk to each is drawn on the map page.

Is a Milan museum card worth it?

Only if you will use it more than once. Here is the arithmetic for each card against a single €10 ticket.

• Tourist Museum Card, €20. Free entry to every civic museum in Milan for three consecutive days, one entry each. It breaks even when the other civic museums you visit in those three days cost you €10 or more between them. You have twelve months to start using it.
• Milano Museo Card, €15. A named card, valid for a year, for all the civic museums. Your castle ticket covers one day only, so the card beats a second visit to the castle on its own.
• Abbonamento Musei Lombardia – Val d'Aosta. €52 for adults aged 27 to 64, €30 from 15 to 26, €42 from 65, and €20 for children to 14. It runs for 365 days. It suits you if you live in the region or return often.
• YesMilano City Pass, €60 or €90. Three days of public transport plus a museum list that includes the castle. It makes sense if you will ride the metro all weekend anyway.

On a single visit, none of them beats €10. Their value is in the second and third museum, and in the metro rides.

The battlements ticket, and what it does not open

The Merlate Panoramiche is a walk along a stretch of the ramparts, rebuilt by Luca Beltrami from 1893. It costs €10, or €5 reduced, and some visitors go free. It runs Tuesday to Sunday with the last entry at 5pm. Groups of up to 25 go up every twenty minutes with a warden. A lift makes it step-free, pushchairs included.

It does not include the museums, and the museum ticket does not include it. If you want both, you buy both.

Two guided alternatives are run by Ad Artem, the castle's concessionaire, and booked with them rather than at the museum desk. The Tour delle Merlate walks the battlements for ninety minutes on Thursday and Saturday evenings at 7.30pm, from age 8. It runs in bad weather, because the walk is covered. The Tour dei Sotterranei goes underground along the covered way of the Ghirlanda, the old outer wall on the park side, on Saturdays and Sundays at 11am, from age 10. Their prices are on Ad Artem's own booking page.

Audio guide, app ticket or the castle's own guided visit?

Three ways to have the castle explained, at three very different prices.

The castle's audio guide costs €5 at the Bookshop. It comes in Italian, English, French, Spanish, German and Russian. It does not cover the Egyptian gallery. You add it to a €10 ticket, so your total is €15.

The reserved ticket with a digital audio guide costs From $23. You swap the voucher at the Autostradale office at Piazza Castello 1, then walk in. The commentary runs on an app on your own phone, in six languages, so bring headphones and download it first. It is the one version of the museum ticket that refunds, up to 24 hours ahead. Some visitors find the app thin; others value the extra walking routes it carries for the rest of Milan.

The castle's own guided visit costs €20 with the museum ticket included. It runs every Saturday at 11am in English and every Sunday at 11am in Italian. You do not book. Meet at 10.45 at the Info Point, on your right inside the Filarete Tower as you enter from Piazza Castello.

If your visit falls on a Saturday and you speak English, that €20 visit is the best value on the list. On any other day, you choose between the audio guide and a guided tour.

When does a guided tour beat the €10 ticket?

When you want the building explained rather than labelled. Guided museum tours start at From $23, with the €10 ticket inside the fare. They run for ninety minutes, in a small group, and several run in five languages. The biggest of them opens with the Pietà Rondanini and moves through the Corte Ducale and the Rocchetta.

You also get a date that can move. Every tour here refunds in full up to 24 hours before it starts. A Comune ticket refunds never. If your trip is fixed and the weather is not, that alone is worth something.

One practical tip from a traveller in June 2026: ask your guide for your ticket at the end. On the most-booked guided tour it stays valid for the rest of the day in any museum section the group did not enter, so you can go back in at your own pace.

What a guided tour cannot do is change the castle's rules. The museums still close on Mondays, and the last entry is still 4.30pm. And a Last Supper combination is not a castle tour at all. It holds the refectory slot and walks you through the free courtyards afterwards. The tour decision guide sorts every fare by that line.

Are you ten or more?

Groups of 10 to 25 get 20% off the museum ticket. You must buy in advance, online. Guided groups of more than ten must also rent radioguides, at €1.50 each, so every person can hear the guide. Budget for both before you set a per-head price.

The Egyptian gallery has one more rule for groups: you book an entry time. Visitors on their own simply walk in.

Before you buy: a short checklist

• Is it a Monday? The museums are closed. The courtyards are open and free, so walk those instead.
• Will you arrive after 4.30pm? The ticket office is shut. Come earlier, or plan the courtyards and Parco Sempione for that slot.
• Is it the first Sunday or the second Tuesday? Claim a free ticket online first.
• Are you under 18, a student or over 65? Bring the document.
• Could your date move? Pick a fare that refunds, because the Comune's ticket does not.
• Do you want the battlements? That is a second ticket.

Fares that fold the ticket, a guide or an app, and a refund window into one booking are compared on Sforza Castle Tours.

Frequently asked questions

Fares with museum entry in them

Milan: Sforza Castle Entry Ticket with Digital Audio Guide

Reserved museum entry and an app commentary in six languages.

From $23 per person

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Milan: Sforza Castle and Michelangelo's Pietà Rondanini Tour

Ninety guided minutes inside, museum ticket included, the Pietà first.

From $58 per person

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Guided Tour: Discover Sforza Castle and Michelangelo's Art

Michelangelo and Leonardo at the castle, ninety minutes, entry included.

From $94 per person

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