Pinacoteca di Brera

Pinacoteca di Brera exists here in Milan for a reason that’s easy to miss if you only think of paintings: it grew out of an educational and scientific complex that was literally rebuilt to make learning possible on this exact site. The story begins with the Palazzo Brera, whose name comes from the Germanic *braida*, meaning a grassy opening in the city’s structure—an early clue that this was a chosen “space” for institutions, not merely a convenient address.

From convent grounds to teaching complex

In 1572, the convent on the site passed to the Jesuits. Their control didn’t last unchanged. Between 1627 and 1628, there was a radical rebuilding by Francesco Maria Richini, reshaping the grounds into something better suited to institutions. When the Jesuits were disbanded in 1773, the palazzo did not empty out; it became the seat of the astronomical Observatory and the Braidense National Library, both founded by the Jesuits. In 1774, the herbarium of the new botanical garden was added—learning, in multiple disciplines, anchored to one place. That educational momentum fed into the Brera Academy. The buildings were extended to designs by Giuseppe Piermarini. The Academy was formally founded in 1776, with Giuseppe Parini as dean.