Santa Maria delle Grazie

The church and the convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan were built between 1463 and 1482. The building was designed by Guiniforte Solari who realised the construction which reflected the late Gothic style which was very fashionable in the Lombardy Region of the XV century.

The Church is especially known thanks to the precious work of art that it hosts: the Cenacolo di Leonardo (The Last Supper). The fresco was commissioned to the artist in 1495, however the building had already undergone profound transformations over the preceding years, some of which were carried out to valorise the place in which the work of art was to be realised. It was Ludovico il Moro who commissioned these works and he also decided to make Santa Maria delle Grazie the Mausoleum of the Sforza family.

Coming back to the work by Leonardo Da Vinci, this fresco is also known as the "Cenacolo" and "Last Supper" as it portrays the last supper of Jesus with his Disciples.

On August 15th 1943, during the second world war, the building was bombed by the Anglo-American planes and underwent heavy damage. The refectory of the Convent, where the opera was to be found, was almost completely destroyed but, fortunately, the fresco went unharmed.

Close to the Church and the Convent it is possible to stay in one of the numerous hotels in and around Milan which, in accordance with its dimensions and the high number of tourists that it hosts, has many hotels, also in the zone of Santa Maria delle Grazie. Noteworthy is the fact that this evocative church has been declared UNESCO Human Heritage.