Cathedral - Duomo
Piazza Duomo • M1/3 Duomo
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Milan's cathedral has been a central part of the city's life since 1386, when it was founded by Gian Galeazzo Visconti. This triumph of decoration is remarkable in many ways: for its sheer size (built on an area of 12,000 square metres, with a weight of 325,000 tonnes, it was the largest church in Christendom until St. Peters in Rome was built); |
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for its intricacy, with decoration in even the most hidden parts of the roof structures, and a total of 3,400 statues; and for the duration of construction.
It was completed only in 1960, when the last bronze door
was put into place. If you've not seen it before, approach it from Corso
Vittorio Emanuele, a pleasant pedestrian precinct: that way you see it
from its best angle, starting with the golden "Madonnina", the
four-metre, gold-leaf covered statue of Mary that tops the tallest spire,
and then you gradually see the elaborate Gothic architecture of the earliest
part of the building, the east end, below. While the west façade
is also impressive, it was built only in 1810, and in a hybrid neo-Gothic-Neoclassical
style. A visit to the roof, and to the Paleochristian baptistry underneath
the west end, are also interesing.
Find it on the Map
Cathedral opening hours:
Open Daily from 7.00 to 18.45
| Rooftop
From a
height of about 70 meters, visitors can admire a breathtaking view,
framed by myriads of statues, pinnacles, tracery and flying buttresses.
The roofs are covered in slabs of Candoglia marble, in a total area of
8,000 square meters. |
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| Open:
Untill 7th February 9.00 a.m. - 4.45 p.m. (last ticket 4.20 p.m.) 8th Febrauary – 28th March 9.00 a.m. - 5.45 p.m. (last ticket 5.20 p.m.) 28th March – 24th October 09.00 a.m. – 10.00 p.m. (last ticket 9.15 p.m.) Closed on Christmas Day and on the 1st of May. |
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Prices: |
Bookshop
Hours: 9.30 -17.30
Audio Guide
Hours: 9.30 -17.15
-Normal: €4
-Reduced: €3
-Normal Student: €3
-Reduced Student: €2
-Groups (15 people): €2
-Children (6-15 years): €2
Baptistry of Saint Giovanni
Entrance: €1.50
(All available in the bookshop)
Daily Mass Times
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WEEKDAYS |
