The Duomo after hours

Why it is on the list

Milan Cathedral was begun in 1386 and its last portal was inaugurated in 1965; it is the largest church in Italy, and its roof is a field of 135 spires set on flying buttresses.¹ The Veneranda Fabbrica, the body that has built and kept it for more than six hundred years, opens the whole monumental complex to a company or a private party after the public has left: the cathedral, the terraces, the museum and the archive, always with one of its own qualified guides.²³ A small concert can be added after hours.² The archive, which the Fabbrica calls the diary of the city, holds the records of the cathedral's construction and of Milanese life around it; a visit to it can be arranged for the same party.²³

It is the wrong choice for a dinner: catering is offered only in the Fabbrica's event rooms, the Sala dei Milanesi behind the apse and the Clock Terrace on the eleventh floor, which holds up to 50.² For a single painting seen alone, the after-hours Last Supper is the better choice.

How to get it

Write to the Fabbrica's Events and Incentive office and ask for an after-hours opening with a guided visit (in Italian, apertura straordinaria, visita in esclusiva), naming the parts of the complex you want: cathedral, terraces, museum, archive.²⁴ The office is at Via Carlo Maria Martini 1, behind the cathedral, and answers on +39 02 361691; the Fabbrica's offices keep hours Monday to Friday, 9.30 am to 1 pm and 2.30 to 5.30 pm, and are closed at weekends.⁵ The archive closes for consultation for the whole of August.³

Discretion

The visit takes place behind closed doors, after the complex has closed to the public, and a Fabbrica guide leads it.⁴ Photographs for personal use are allowed throughout the complex except during services in the cathedral; professional photography or filming needs a separate permit from the Fabbrica.⁶