Brera is a district ("
quartiere
A (; : , ) is an administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions () and provinces (). The can also have the title of ().
Formed a ...
") of
Milan
Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...
,
Italy
Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
. It is located within the
Zone 1 (the historical core of the city) and it is centred on Via ''Brera''. The name stems from Medieval Italian "braida" or "brera", derived from Old
Lombardic "brayda" (often Latinized as "praedium"), meaning a land expanse either cleared of trees or naturally lacking them. This is because around the year 900, the Brera district was situated just outside Milan's city walls and was kept clear for military reasons. The root of the word is the same as that of the Dutch city of
Breda
Breda ( , , , ) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the southern part of the Netherlands, located in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Brabant. ...
's name and the English word "broad".
Brera houses the
Brera Academy of Fine Arts and the
Brera Art Gallery, which prominently contributed to the development of Brera as an artists' neighbourhood and a place of
bohemian atmosphere, sometimes referred to as "the milanese
Montmartre
Montmartre ( , , ) is a large hill in Paris's northern 18th arrondissement of Paris, 18th arrondissement. It is high and gives its name to the surrounding district, part of the Rive Droite, Right Bank. Montmartre is primarily known for its a ...
". Both the academy and the gallery are located in
Palazzo Brera
Palazzo Brera or Palazzo di Brera is a monumental palace in Milan, in Lombardy in northern Italy. It was a Jesuit college for two hundred years. It now houses several cultural institutions including the Accademia di Brera, the art academy of t ...
, the main historical building of the area; this same building also houses
Milan's botanical garden as well as
an astronomical observatory and the
Braidense National Library. Other features that contribute to the character of Brera include restaurants, bars, nightclubs, antique and art shops, colourful street markets, as well as
fortune tellers' booths.
From 1998 to 2002 novelist
Paolo Brera, along with Franco Brera and Francesca Brera, edited and published the magazine ''Brera'', devoted to the Brera district.
Well-known journalists, art critics and fiction writers contributed over the years, including Rossana Bossaglia,
Giuseppe Pontiggia, Guido Vergani, Vittoria Colpi,
Carlo Castellaneta and Giulio Signori.
Footnotes
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Districts of Milan