Brera, Milan

Brera is a Milanese district centred on Via Brera, and its character grew around art: the Brera Academy of Fine Arts and Brera Art Gallery are housed in Palazzo Brera, the area's main historic building. The neighbourhood's name reaches back to Medieval Italian braida or brera, from Old Lombardic brayda, a term for land cleared of trees or naturally open. Around the year 900, this ground lay outside Milan's walls and was kept open for military reasons.

The same building also contains a botanical garden, an astronomical observatory, and the Braidense National Library. Brera's artistic life appears in its restaurants, bars, art and antique shops, markets, and fortune-tellers' booths. The academy and gallery helped turn the district into an artists' neighbourhood, sometimes compared with Montmartre in Milanese culture.