Why go

Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper is one of the most famous paintings in the world, and seeing it in the room it was made for is a moving experience. Leonardo painted it between about 1494 and 1498 on the end wall of the refectory of the Dominican convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie, commissioned by Duke Ludovico Sforza. It captures the moment Christ announces that one of the apostles will betray him, and the ripple of shock that runs along the table.

Leonardo experimented with tempera and oil on dry plaster rather than true fresco, and the paint began to flake within decades. The mural survived damp, Napoleon’s troops and a bomb in 1943 that destroyed much of the building around it. A long restoration completed in 1999 recovered what remains of the original.

What to see

  • The Last Supper. Study the groups of three apostles, Judas leaning back into shadow and the perspective lines that meet at Christ’s head.
  • The Crucifixion. Giovanni Donato da Montorfano’s large fresco of 1495 on the opposite wall.
  • Santa Maria delle Grazie. The church next door, with Bramante’s tribune, is free to visit when services allow.

Plan your visit

The museum opens Tuesday to Sunday from 8.15am to 7pm, with last admission at 6.45pm, and closes on Mondays, 1 January and 25 December. To protect the painting, visitors enter in groups of up to 40 and have 15 minutes in the refectory.

Booking is compulsory for everyone, including infants and those entitled to free entry. Tickets cost €15 for adults aged 25 and over and €2 for 18 to 25s; under 18s are free. They are released three months at a time: in September for November to January, in December for February to April, in March for May to July and in June for August to October. Extra tickets go on sale online every Wednesday at 12 noon for the following week. Tickets are named, cannot be changed or refunded, and you can buy up to five online in a calendar year.

You must collect your ticket at the office beside the entrance at least 30 minutes before your slot or you lose your entry. On the first Sunday of the month entry is free, with tickets released online at noon on the Wednesday before.

Getting there

Cadorna and Conciliazione stations are both about ten minutes’ walk away, and tram 16 stops outside the church. The area is inside Milan’s Area C congestion zone, so public transport is easier than driving.

Tips

If the official dates are full, keep checking on Wednesdays or book a guided tour with reserved entry. Leave large bags at your hotel; lockers are limited. Combine the visit with the Basilica of Sant’Ambrogio or the San Maurizio church, both a short walk away.

Nearby

Across the road, the Casa degli Atellani preserves the garden where a vineyard given to Leonardo by Ludovico Sforza has been replanted. The Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnologia, with its galleries of models based on Leonardo’s drawings, is ten minutes’ walk south, and Corso Magenta is lined with cafés and pastry shops for a break before or after your slot.