Sforzesco Castle

This guide to Sforzesco Castle in Milan turns on a room in its northern tower, where Duke Ludovico Sforza put Leonardo da Vinci to work in 1498 on a ceiling of painted mulberry trees laced with his own nickname. It follows what happened after the duke fled French troops the next year and Leonardo's finished room was left behind, as the castle passed through centuries of very different uses, from barracks to stable. Stand beneath the vault in the Sala delle Asse and look straight up.