Palazzo Isimbardi

Palazzo Isimbardi in Milan, Italy, is a historic city palace whose earliest fabric dates to the 15th century and which shows phases from the Renaissance through later Baroque and Neoclassical remaking. Built in the context of Renaissance Milan, the building later acquired important civic functions and has housed provincial and metropolitan government offices, which has been a principal reason for its continued prominence.

Local tradition places the palace’s original nucleus in the 1400s as the home of Cicco Simonetta, a councillor to Francesco Sforza. The first surviving documentary reference appears at the end of that century, when the property passed to a descendant of Gerolamo Pallavicino. Members of the Pallavicino family retained ownership into the mid-1500s. In that period the residence left the Pallavicino line and was sold to the Taverna family, who treated the palace as a country house near the city and carried out substantial remodelling as their fortunes grew.

A violent episode in the palace’s history occurred in 1607. The hunted noble Gian Paolo Osio sought refuge there, hoping the Taverna household would shelter him. Instead he was murdered in the palace basement by members of the family. After the Taverna male line ended, the property passed through several hands before the Lambertenghi family acquired it in 1731. The Lambertenghi carried out a major programme of alteration during roughly fifty years of ownership, after which the palace was sold to the Isimbardi family.

The Isimbardi family undertook further restoration work, notably transforming the façade that faces the garden. When Luigi Isimbardi died without heirs in 1908, the house was purchased by the industrialist Franco Tosi. In 1935 the Province of Milan acquired the building and installed its administrative offices there. Following the later abolition of the provincial body, the palace became the seat of the Metropolitan City of Milan. A 1939 campaign of restoration and alteration included an enlargement toward Via Vivaio, and during that work sections of the Renaissance frescoes on the portico vaults were uncovered. Local legend continues to link the building with the murdered Gian Paolo Osio, whose ghost is said to roam the cellar.