Leonardo3 Museum, Interactive technology museum in Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, Milan, Italy.
Leonardo3 Museum is an interactive museum in the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan, displaying physical models and working reconstructions built from Leonardo da Vinci's original drawings. The exhibition is arranged around both hands-on machines and digital displays, allowing visitors to see how his designs were meant to function.
The museum opened in 2013 with the aim of bringing Leonardo da Vinci's technical work closer to the public and presenting him as an engineer, not only as a painter. Over time the exhibition grew to include a digital version of the Codex Atlanticus, a large collection of his handwritten notes and sketches.
The museum sits inside one of Milan's most visited arcades, so the visit often feels like a natural stop during a walk through the city center. Many visitors combine it with a look at the nearby cathedral or a coffee under the arcade's glass roof.
The museum is inside the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, right in the heart of the city and within walking distance of the cathedral, so it is easy to reach on foot. Visitors who want to try the interactive stations without rushing should set aside at least an hour and a half.
The team behind the museum spent years reconstructing Leonardo's designs to make them actually work, and in the process discovered that some earlier interpretations of his drawings had been incorrect. A number of the machines on display can be operated by hand, letting visitors feel the mechanics of a 15th-century invention in motion.
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