Milan first stepped into the historical limelight in the fourth century when Emperor Constantine issued the
Edict of Milan
here, granting Christians throughout the Roman Empire the freedom to worship for the first time. The city, under its charismatic bishop, Ambrogio (St Ambrose), swiftly became a major centre of Christianity - many of today's churches stand on the sites, or even retain parts, of fourth-century predecessors.
Medieval Milan rose to prominence under the ruthless regime of the Visconti dynasty, who founded what is still the city's most spectacular building, the florid late-Gothic
Duomo
, and built the first, heavily fortified nucleus of the
Castello
- which, under their successors, the Sforza, was extended to house what became one of the most luxurious courts of the Renaissance. This was a period of much building and rebuilding, notably under the last Sforza, Lodovico, who employed the architect
Bramante
to improve the city's churches and
Leonardo da Vinci
to paint
The Last Supper
and design war-machines to aid him in his struggles with foreign powers and other Italian states. Leonardo's inventions didn't prevent Milan falling to the French in 1499, marking the beginning of almost four centuries of foreign rule. Later, the Austrian Habsburgs took control, during their time commissioning the
Teatro della Scala
and founding the
Brera
art gallery, which, during Milan's short spell under Napoleon, was filled with paintings looted from churches and private collections.
Mussolini made his mark on the city too. Arrive by train and you emerge into the massive white megalith of the central
station
built on his orders; the main tourist office is housed in one half of the pompous twin
Arengario
, from which he would address crowds gathered in Piazza Duomo. And with stark irony it was on the now major road junction of
Piazzale Loreto
that the dead dictator was strung up for display to the baying mob.
