Duomo di Milano Tickets: Skip-the-Line Entry, Tours & Terraces

The Duomo di Milano, also called Milan Cathedral, is dedicated to Santa Maria Nascente (the Nativity of Saint Mary) and is the mother church of the Diocese of Milan. It is one of the largest cathedrals in Italy and Europe. Work began in 1386, and the façade was completed with its doors between 1909 and 1965.

The roof carries 135 spires, and the exterior has more than 3,400 statues carved in Candoglia marble. The Great Spire is the tallest, rising 108.5 metres to the Madonnina, a gilded copper statue placed there in 1774 that remains one of Milan's best-known symbols.

On Napoleon's initiative, work to complete the façade ran from 1807 to 1813.

Visitors can walk on the cathedral's own roof, among the spires, flying buttresses and marble statues. The first level, about 31 metres up, is reached on foot or by lift, and two steep staircases lead from there to the Central Terrace, about 45 metres up. The Duomo is the largest Gothic building in the world with a rooftop that visitors can walk on.

On a clear day the view takes in the mountains that ring the Po Plain. The terraces keep the same hours as the cathedral, and the Opening Hours page has the details.

Work began in 1386 at the apse, with its large stained-glass windows, and moved on towards the transept and the nave. The Veneranda Fabbrica del Duomo was founded in October 1387 to run the building site, and Gian Galeazzo Visconti chose Candoglia marble over the usual Lombard brick. The high altar was consecrated in 1418.

Inside, the cathedral has the largest organ in Italy, with 15,800 pipes. A relic said to be a nail from the Crucifixion is kept above the high altar and is brought down once a year, in September, during the Rite of the Nivola. The Duomo is still a working cathedral with daily services.