«From the Alps to Sicily, everywhere is Legnano»: the town is in Mameli's anthem because here, on 29 May 1176, the Lombard League defeated Barbarossa — the first great victory of the Italian communes. It is the only city apart from Rome named in the national anthem. Every last Sunday of May the Palio re-enacts it, with one of the most imposing historical parades in Italy and the race of the eight contrade around the Visconti castle on the Olona.
That date still carries weight: 29 May is the regional holiday of Lombardy. The other story is industrial: cotton mills and engineering made Legnano a capital of Lombard labour, and the Legnano cycling team dressed Bartali and Coppi. The hills along the Olona, though, were inhabited far earlier: the oldest finds in the comune date from the first millennium before Christ. Milan is twenty minutes away; the character is all its own.
Basilica di San Magno · Castello Visconteo · Chiesa del Santissimo Redentore and 3 more
Risotto alla Milanese
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Next up: Saint Magnus, patron of the town that halted Barbarossa, Thursday 5 November
Nearest airport: Milano Malpensa, 15 km away
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📅 Every year, on 5 November
Legnano celebrates Saint Magnus on 5 November in the basilica dedicated to him; it was here, on 29 May 1176, that the Lombard League defeated Frederick Barbarossa's army in the battle that ended his last campaign into Italy, still commemorated today by the Palio of the town's eight districts.
Basilica di San Magno Renaissance basilica of the Bramante school built from 1504 to 1513, with Bernardino Luini's polyptych. Castello Visconteo Medieval castle on an Olona island, once the convent of San Giorgio, with the Lampugnani keep of 1437-1445. Chiesa del Santissimo Redentore Lombard Romanesque church of 1902 at Legnanello, with a Byzantine altar of Carrara marble and mosaics of 1923. Chiesa di Sant'Ambrogio Legnano's oldest church, rebuilt in 1590 and enlarged in 1740, with paintings by the Lampugnani. Chiesa di Santa Rita Church of the Purification, later Santa Rita, annexed to the Melzi institute, with Lampugnani frescoes. Museo civico Guido Sutermeister Legnano's archaeological museum, set up in 1929, with finds from the Copper Age to the Lombards and the Sala c Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Outside Legnano, but an easy day trip away.
