Santa Maria delle Grazie
The wall Leonardo painted on was sand-bagged against Allied bombs in 1943 — and held.
Coming soon on iOS — be first to walk Milan offline.
A 15th-century Dominican church and convent where Ludovico Sforza planned his dynasty's burial site. The refectory holds Leonardo's Last Supper mural. The apse is attributed to Bramante — his name is cut into the vault marble dated 1494. Both church and convent are UNESCO-listed, and the complex layers Gothic nave, Bramante-era apse, and Renaissance fresco cycles across multiple rooms.
What to look for
- The refectory wall bearing The Last Supper — most of the surrounding refectory was destroyed when Allied bombs hit the night of 15 August 1943; this wall survived because it had been sand-bagged
- The apse, attributed to Bramante, with his name inscribed in the church vault marble delivered in 1494
- The Chapel of the Holy Crown (right of the nave), frescoed by Gaudenzio Ferrari with Stories of the Passion — the Titian altarpiece once installed here in 1543 was looted by French troops in 1797 and is now in the Louvre
The Last Supper is in the convent refectory, a separate space from the church — the source places it there, not in the nave.
Santa Maria delle Grazie is one of 35 sights worth the detour in Milan, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Milan pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Milan
- San Siro — Giuseppe Meazza StadiumTwo rival clubs, one ground: the 75,817-seat arena where Milan's football fault line runs.
- Milan Cathedral (Duomo di Milano)Construction started in 1386 and the final details were finished in 1965 — the city couldn't stop adding to it.
- La ScalaThe gallery gods who booed tenor Roberto Alagna off stage mid-Aida in 2006 still haunt the loggione — the cheapest seats in opera's most feared house.
- Sforza CastleLeonardo da Vinci painted the ceiling here. Bramante did the walls down the hall.
- Galleria Vittorio Emanuele IIThe direct ancestor of every enclosed shopping mall on earth — and there is still a worn hole in the floor where Milanese spin a heel for luck.
- Pinacoteca di BreraNapoleon's redistribution of Italian art built this collection — Raphael's Marriage of the Virgin was the prize acquisition.