Step Into Leonardo's Workshop in Milan
You are standing in a room in Milan, and in front of you a mechanical lion walks. Nearby, a harpsichord-viola waits to be played, and a great dragon spreads its wings. None of these machines survive from the fifteenth century — they were reconstructed by the Leonardo3 Museum from close analysis of Leonardo da Vinci's original manuscripts. Reach out and touch the models, work the touch screens, and watch drawings that have sat flat on the page for five centuries rise into three dimensions.
Explore the Codices Without Turning a Page
The centrepiece of the exhibition is a set of three interactive codices. Across more than 2,000 pages and 600 3D models, you can leaf through Leonardo's notebooks on a screen, pull his sketches apart, and see how each mechanism was meant to move. It is the closest thing to handling the manuscripts themselves — except here, nothing is behind glass and everything responds to your touch.
- Reconstructions built from the manuscripts include the Mechanical Lion, the Harpsichord-Viola, the Great Continuous Organ, the Rapid Fire Crossbow and the Great Dragon.
- Life-size and scale models sit alongside the digital versions, so you can compare the physical machine with the drawing it came from.
- Virtual reality stations let you step inside Leonardo's designs rather than simply look at them.
See The Last Supper as It Looked in 1498
Leonardo's mural in Santa Maria delle Grazie has faded, flaked and been repainted across five centuries. The Leonardo3 Museum has produced a digital restoration that approximates how the painting appeared in 1498, recovering details that time has taken: colours, faces and passages of the composition that are no longer legible on the wall itself. See the original in the refectory, then come here to see what you were looking at.
What the Museum Is, and How It Travels
Leonardo3 is a research centre founded in 2004, dedicated to the study and scientific popularisation of Leonardo's work, and it has received the Award of Excellence from the President of the Italian Republic. The World of Leonardo is its traveling exhibition, and it has been staged in Milan, Portland, Pordenone, Kowloon, Trento, Simi Valley, Antalya, Checiny, San Marino, Toronto, Philadelphia, New York and Vigevano. Wherever it lands, the format holds: models you can operate, codices you can open on screen, and a restored Last Supper.
Plan Your Visit Around Milan's Own Rhythms
Milan rewards a little scheduling. Most museums in the city close on Mondays, so build your Leonardo day around that. The Last Supper itself is in Santa Maria delle Grazie, in the western part of the city, and the church and its painting form a UNESCO World Heritage Site — pair the two Leonardo experiences in a single day and you get the work and the mind behind it.
- Fashion Week runs twice yearly, in February–March and September–October, and the city fills accordingly.
- The Salone del Mobile is considered the most important fair in the world of design.
- On 6 January each year, the Corteo dei Re Magi parade brings the Biblical Three Wise Men through the streets for Epiphany.
- For a breather between museums, Parco Sempione — home to the Sforzesco Castle — is the most visited of the city's parks.
Start With the Machines
Book your Milan dates, check that your visit does not fall on a Monday closure, and give the Leonardo3 Museum a full morning or afternoon — long enough to play the harpsichord-viola, walk the lion, and stand in front of a Last Supper that has been given its colours back. Then walk to Santa Maria delle Grazie and see what remains.