The Royal Villa of Monza is one of the grandest Neoclassical buildings in Italy, a vast 700-room palace designed by Giuseppe Piermarini (who also designed La Scala in Milan) and built between 1777 and 1780 as the summer residence of the Austrian Habsburgs who then ruled Lombardy. The building's sheer scale is impressive — the main facade stretches 700 metres — though only parts of the interior are currently open to visitors, with restoration ongoing.
The villa sits at the southern edge of the enormous Monza Park, which was itself designed as the private grounds of the palace and enclosed with a 14-kilometre wall that still stands. The formal gardens immediately around the villa have been restored to something approaching their original elegance; the Rose Garden (Roseto Niso Fumagalli) is particularly fine in early summer. The Villa has had a chequered modern history, falling into serious disrepair after the end of the monarchy, but significant investment in restoration has been underway for years and more of the building continues to open to the public.