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Attraction · Milan

Santa Maria delle Grazie

A Dominican church and convent inscribed by UNESCO in 1980 together with the Last Supper Leonardo painted on its refectory wall.

UNESCOInscribed 1980
Built1463-1497
Commissioned byFrancesco I Sforza
Nave architectGuiniforte Solari
The Last SupperLeonardo da Vinci, in the refectory
Restoration1978-1999
About

A church inscribed with its painting

UNESCO listed this in 1980 as the Church and Dominican Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie with The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci — one property, not a building and a picture that happen to share an address. Francesco I Sforza ordered the church; Guiniforte Solari built the Gothic nave by 1469; Ludovico Sforza commissioned the later work, and the apse has been attributed to Bramante, though the attribution is disputed. Leonardo painted the Last Supper on the wall of the refectory, the friars' dining hall, and the technique he used is why the painting began deteriorating almost at once.

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What to See

What there is to see

Two things, in two different rooms, under one inscription.

🍞 The refectory

  • The Last Supper covers the end wall of the friars' dining hall
  • Dust, fumes and humidity did the damage, and centuries of restoration attempts distorted it further
  • The conservation that produced what you see now ran from 1978 to 1999

⛪ The church

  • Solari's Gothic nave, completed by 1469
  • The apse, from the later Sforza campaign, attributed to Bramante — an attribution scholars dispute

🧱 What survived 1943

  • Allied bombing on 15 August 1943 destroyed much of the refectory
  • The wall carrying the Last Supper had been sandbagged, and it stood
Getting There

Getting there

West of the centre, away from the cathedral square.

🧭 Position

  • A short distance west of the Duomo, in the Corso Magenta quarter
Best Time

When to go

The refectory is the constraint, not the church.

🎟️ Planning

  • Access to the Last Supper is controlled, and demand routinely exceeds what the room can take
  • The church itself is a separate, ordinary visit
Visitor Intelligence

Before you go

Treat the refectory and the church as two visits.

📖 Context

  • The inscription covers church, convent and painting together — seeing only the mural is seeing part of the property
Nearby

Close by

The rest of central Milan.

Castello Sforzesco
Sforza castle
Duomo di Milano
The cathedral
Milan
The city
Good to Know

Frequently asked

It is a mural, but not painted in true fresco, and that is why it began deteriorating early. Dust, fumes and humidity did the rest, and repeated restoration attempts over the centuries distorted it further.
Yes. Allied bombing on 15 August 1943 destroyed much of the refectory, but the wall holding the painting had been sandbagged and survived.
The church, the Dominican convent and the Last Supper were inscribed together in 1980 as a single property.
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