University of Milan

On 29 November 1863, Milan’s technical future got a formal address. That was the day Politecnico di Milano was founded by Francesco Brioschi, then secretary of the Ministry of Education and rector of the University of Pavia. Italy had only recently been unified, and the new school was meant to push scientific and technological training forward in a country trying to industrialize fast. It opened under the name Istituto Tecnico Superiore, with just 30 students, and only two subjects at first: Civil Engineering and Industrial Engineering. Even the architecture program would arrive a little later, in 1865, through cooperation with the Brera Academy.

From Royal Polytechnic To City Of Studies By the early 20th century, the school had gained international attention, helped by influential faculty and a modernist outlook that fit the era’s belief in progress through engineering and design. Then came a major shift in 1927: the university moved to Piazza Leonardo da Vinci, and that campus, still active today, became the institution’s central heart. At the time, it was called Regio Politecnico, the “Royal Polytechnic.” After Italy became a republic at the end of World War II, the word *Regio* was dropped, and the school took on the name that now feels inseparable from Milan itself.