The Leonardo da Vinci Museum of Science and Technology occupies a former Olivetan monastery, joining Renaissance-era architecture with modern exhibits on invention and industry. Its name honors Leonardo as a bridge between artistic imagination and technical inquiry.
Guide preview
The museum’s brick-and-stone setting once belonged to a monastery, a striking home for galleries devoted to machines, science, and technology. The former Olivetan complex dates to the early sixteenth century; the museum opened in 1953, timed to the five-hundredth anniversary of Leonardo da Vinci’s birth.
Continue exploring
Discover the full story
Keep reading with a travel pass and explore every full guide and tour.
UpgradeQuick facts
- The museum opened on February 15, 1953.
- It occupies an early-sixteenth-century Olivetan monastery.
- Industrialist Guido Ucelli led the effort to create the museum.
More places in Milan
ADI Design Museum – Compasso d’Oro
ADI Design Museum presents the Compasso d’Oro design award collection in a converted industrial complex near Milan’s Monumental Cemetery. The museum links celebrated everyday objects with the spaces and processes that brought them into being, making design history a story of use as well as appearanc
Arco della Pace
Arco della Pace began as a Napoleonic victory arch, then acquired a new dedication after political power changed hands. Its marble reliefs and bronze chariot preserve that transition from imperial triumph to a monument named for peace.
Armani/Silos
Armani/Silos repurposes a 1950s granary as an exhibition space devoted to Giorgio Armani’s work. Its plain, geometric exterior preserves the logic of industrial storage, giving visitors a building whose form reflects the designer’s preference for order and simplicity.
Backdoor 43
Backdoor 43 compresses a cocktail bar into four square metres, creating an unusually close exchange between bartender and guest. Its tiny footprint is the design story: a conventional bar experience becomes a deliberate exercise in intimacy, scale, and concentrated service.
Bagatti Valsecchi Museum
The Bagatti Valsecchi Museum preserves a late nineteenth-century Milanese home arranged in a Renaissance style. Its rooms combine historical art and furnishings with modern comforts that were advanced for the period, revealing how its owners staged domestic life.
BAM Biblioteca degli Alberi
BAM Biblioteca degli Alberi organizes greenery into planted “rooms” and winding paths among Milan’s Porta Nuova towers. Designed as contemporary public landscape, the ten-hectare park joins botanical variety, open space, and a changing city skyline.