Rising above the central square that bears its name, the Duomo di Milano is the largest church in Italy after Saint Peter Basilica in Rome and the third largest in the world, a great pinnacled and statue-encrusted Gothic structure that took almost six centuries to complete. Construction began in 1386 under the orders of the Visconti duke Gian Galeazzo and was declared complete only in 1965, when the last bronze door was installed in the facade. The cathedral occupies the site of the much earlier basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, itself built over a Roman baptistery dedicated by Saint Ambrose in 387 AD. The Roman baptistery, rediscovered in the 1960s during excavations beneath the cathedral pavement, can still be visited and is one of the oldest Christian baptisteries in Europe. The exterior of the cathedral is famously decorated with more than three thousand statues, ranging from large figures of saints and prophets on the pinnacles down to small ornamental figures tucked into the niches and along the buttresses. The facade itself, with its mixture of Gothic, Renaissance and neoclassical elements, was completed only in the early nineteenth century under Napoleonic patronage. The interior is dominated by enormously tall clustered piers that rise to support the high pointed vaults. Five aisles divide the space, with the central nave running for around a hundred and fifty metres from the entrance to the apse. Stained-glass windows fill the upper walls with light, including the great fifteenth-century windows of the apse depicting scenes from the Old and New Testaments. A small red bulb high in the apse marks the location of the most venerated relic of the cathedral, the Holy Nail, said to have come from the Cross and brought to Milan by Saint Helena. The nail is shown to the public only on one day each year, during the festival of the Rito della Nivola, when the archbishop is hoisted up in a cloud-shaped basket to retrieve it from its high niche. Tickets allow visitors to climb to the roof of the cathedral, either by stairs or by lift, where it is possible to walk among the spires and the famous golden statue of the Madonnina that crowns the highest pinnacle. On a clear day the view from the roof reaches across the Po valley to the Alps in the north and to the Apennines in the south, making the climb one of the most memorable in Italy.

Type: Tourist Attraction

Address: Piazza del Duomo, Milan, Italy

Website: https://www.duomomilano.it

Opening Date: 16/10/1418