1574 Mediolanum.

This map presents one of the earliest obtainable bird’s eye views of the great city of Milan in northern Italy. The view conveys an impressive picture of the city's distinctively regular, nearly symmetrical layout. The medieval fortifications were replaced in the 16th/17th centuries by the bastion-like city wall, particularly easy to recognize in this bird's-eye perspective. The various moats of the city afforded added protection. The plan starts from the Castello Sforzesco (top centre), the former fortified palace of the Sforza Dukes of Milan, now a museum which houses some of Milan’s finest art, and which is now in the center of the present-day city. Braun described the city as follows: "Milan can be numbered amongst the largest cities in Europe. Running through its suburbs are canals, along which all the necessities of life can be brought into the city by boat. So many different artisans live here that it is said that there are enough to rebuild Italy, but first you would have to destroy Milan in order to persuade its craftsmen and artists to migrate across the rest of Italy. The city has many magnificent houses, each more beautiful than the next, including its main church, with

Date

1574

Place

Milan by Braun & Hogenberg

Archive

Wikimedia Commons

Type

map

Original size

3,100 × 2,224 pixels

Need maps for a whole project? Add Find Any Map to Claude and ask for this one by its id: 140942.