Visit Milan Cathedral: Tickets, Rooftop and Duomo Guide

Advance time-slot tickets are strongly recommended for visiting the Gothic Duomo di Milano, especially if you plan to see both the magnificent cathedral interior and its famous rooftop terraces.

The white marble Gothic facade of the cathedral in Milan makes it one of the most recognizable church exteriors in the world. The richly decorated Duomo is one of the largest Gothic churches in the world, but the opportunity to walk on the terraces and roof of the nave really makes visiting this famous cathedral particularly special. Admission is charged, with time-slot reservation tickets essential to see the church inside or to go up to the roof terraces. Guided tours are good skip-the-line options to enter the Duomo without delays.

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Visiting Milan Cathedral in Italy

The magnificent exterior of Milan Cathedral (Duomo di Milano, or locally Domm de Milan) with more than 2,000 sculptures may be enjoyed for free, but everything else at the Duomo is charged for. Information inside the church and on the roof is virtually non-existent, making it sensible to either book a guided tour or take a good guidebook.

Buying tickets online in advance is very much encouraged, but a limited number of Duomo di Milano tickets are still sold onsite if time slots are available. Card payments are preferred, but cash is still possible when buying cathedral tickets in person in Milan. The ticket office is on the south side of the church at the info point close to the Duomo Museum. 

All Milan Cathedral tickets currently require time-slot reservations, but queues still form at the security checkpoints. Delays may occur at busy times, as the number of visitors allowed into the church at any given time is restricted. The best time to visit the cathedral is early morning.

Floor Plan and Access Doors at Milan Cathedral

Access points for all Duomo di Milano sights are from outside the church. Entry gates depend on your ticket (and maintenance work), but are usually as follows:

• general admission to the Duomo from the southwest (Piazza del Duomo side),
• rooftop terraces by stairs from the meeting of the north transept and nave,
• rooftop access by lift (north transept and choir), and
• fast-track elevator from the south choir.

Admission to the archaeological area is from inside the church near the western doors. The Duomo Museum, included in most cathedral tickets, is in a separate building on the same piazza as the Novecento (20th-Century Art Museum). St Charles Crypt (Scurolo di San Carlo) is inside the church and is only open on Sunday afternoons.

Milan Cathedral Exterior

The vast white-marble exterior of Milan Cathedral is characterized by its forest of pinnacles, flying buttresses, statues, and richly carved architectural details.

Milan Cathedral is High Gothic — a style fairly uncommon in major churches in Italy. (The cathedrals in Pisa and Siena are, for example, Romanesque; Florence somewhat hides its Gothic origins, while many others are Renaissance or Baroque.)

Construction of the current cathedral in Milan started in 1386 and dragged on until 1965, although the church was of course already in use much earlier. The Duomo di Milano was formally consecrated in 1572. The magnificent facade was only completed in 1810 — still several decades before a similar feat was accomplished in Florence.

At the time of its consecration in the late 16th century, the exterior of the church was still bare and undecorated. Although at this time already well out of fashion, the exterior was decorated in the flamboyant High and later Neo-Gothic style.

An incomplete Renaissance facade was removed and replaced with the white marble Gothic facade on the orders of Napoleon Bonaparte, who was crowned King of Italy here in 1805. (Erroneous expectations that the French treasury would finance the work sped up construction significantly.)

Spires and Sculptures of Milan Cathedral

The High Gothic cathedral exterior decorations include nearly 2,300 statues (around a thousand more are inside), 135 spires, 150 gargoyles, and endless architectural details. Most are copies, but many originals are in the Cathedral Museum.

Many of the biblical scenes are fairly easy to read, but many visitors are unfamiliar with events from the lives of various saints. Guides often point out the more interesting ones, making it worth eavesdropping if not taking a tour or carrying a good guidebook.

Measurements of Milan Cathedral

Measured by internal area, Milan Cathedral is the second-largest church in Europe (behind St Peter’s) and the third-largest in the world (behind the Basilica of Our Lady of Aparecida in Brazil). On gross volume, it slipped behind Seville Cathedral, with which it vies for the claim of being the largest Gothic church in the world.

Depending on the preferred method of measuring, the magnificent Milan Cathedral (Duomo di Milano) can therefore claim to be the second, third, or fourth-largest church in Europe.

The basic measurements of Milan Cathedral are:

• Length (external): 158.6 m (520 ft)
• Length (interior): 148.5 m (487 ft)
• Width (transept): 92 m (302 ft)
• Height (nave): 46.8 m (154 ft)
• Pillars: 52 up to 24 m high (79 ft)
• Height (external up to the Madonna’s head): 108.5 m (354 ft)
• Width of Western Face: 61.5 m (202 ft)
• Height of Western Facade: 56 m (184 ft)
• Interior area: 11,700 m² (126,000 sq ft)
• Number of spires: 135
• Around 3,400 sculptures, of which 2,300 are on the outside of the church.

Visit the Interior of the Duomo di Milano

The interior of Milan Cathedral impresses mostly with its size and architecture. Although the church is full of art, it certainly is not the artistic tour de force of many Tuscan cathedrals, such as in Pisa and Siena, or Florentine churches such as Santa Croce, Santa Maria Novella, or San Lorenzo.

The basic structure of Milan Cathedral was erected between 1385 and 1520. Gothic was already going out of fashion, but the techniques were well understood, allowing for the vast dimensions, the high vaulting, and the huge windows. Planned Renaissance facades were never completed, and Baroque elements are mostly limited to interior decorations. 

The church follows a fairly conventional Latin cross layout, but with oversized dimensions. The nave is flanked by two aisles on each side, while the transept protrudes only slightly. The rounded apse behind the choir is the oldest part of the church.

The roof is supported by 52 tall pillars, 24 m (79 ft) high, with vaulting soaring up to nearly 47 m (154 ft).

Magnificent Stained-Glass Windows in Milan Cathedral

The outsized dimensions and the Gothic architecture allowed for larger windows than in most Italian churches. The Duomo has over 164 large windows, of which 55 are historiated, as a pauper’s Bible, using over 3,000 characters. Up to 144 individual scenes are possible in some windows.

The large windows date in parts from as early as the 14th century to the 20th century. The large painted glass windows in the apse are copies of the original stained glass windows that were destroyed during the early 19th century. However, many of the windows in the church are originals but heavily restored throughout the centuries; some original windows are beautifully displayed in the Duomo Museum.

Sculptures in Milan Cathedral

The church has virtually no information on the around a thousand sculptures and paintings inside the church — either buy a guidebook or take a tour.

The most famous statue is arguably Saint Bartholomew Flayed (1562) — this work by Marco d’Agrate, a student of Leonardo da Vinci, shows the skinned saint carrying his own skin like a toga. (Following recent restoration works, it is now in the retrochoir.)

On the baroque altar are two sculptures of two famous local bishops: St Ambrose, the fourth-century bishop who baptized the later Saint Augustine, and St Carlo Borromeo, who finally made the duomo usable in the late 16th century. His mummified body is in a rock crystal coffin in the opulently decorated crypt underneath the choir. 

(St Charles’ Crypt is included in some tickets; otherwise, an additional €3.50 to any ticket with Duomo access. Opening hours shorter than the rest of the church — usually only Sunday afternoons from 13:30 to 15:30.)

A red light on a cross in the cupola above the altar shows where a nail from the cross of Christ’s crucifixion is kept. This relic is only shown for three days each year in mid-September. 

The 1985/86 Tamburini organ is one of the largest in the world, with around 16,000 pipes and 186 stops played on five manuals and pedals. Two of the four monumental wooden caskets are from the 16th century.

Archaeological Area of the Duomo di Milano

The archaeological area — main entrance near the rear of the church — consists of the foundation and fragments of an earlier church and baptistry that were destroyed to enable the larger new cathedral. 

The area is only of moderate interest and, like the artwork in the rest of the church, is not helped by the lack of information on what visitors see. Although worth seeing, this area is certainly not worth queuing to see.

Admission to the archaeological area is not included in the basic cathedral entrance ticket but is part of many other combination passes, or €5 extra on any Duomo entrance ticket. 

Duomo Museum

Access to the Duomo Museum (Grande Museo del Duomo di Milano) is from outside the church — it is to the south of the nave, next to the ticket shop in a former royal palace. The large displays in around two dozen rooms are of items typically found in cathedral museums, including the treasury, vestments, religious paraphernalia, original art, and architectural detailing from the Duomo, and scale models of designs used, or rejected, during the construction of the church.

Highlights include some of the original sculptures and stained-glass windows — now placed lower and easier to appreciate than in the original position inside the church.

Almost all cathedral interior tickets include access to the Duomo Museum, which is interesting and well worth visiting. The Church of San Gottardo is included in all museum tickets. It is frankly of limited interest, and access to this church is now usually from inside the museum.

→ See Visit the Milan Duomo Museum for a short description — it is closed on Wednesdays.

Visitor Information for the Duomo di Milano

Opening Hours of Milan Cathedral

Most of the sights associated with the Duomo di Milano are open daily from 9:00 to 19:00 (last admissions 18:00).

The cathedral may, of course, close for religious ceremonies, but these are mostly only on high holidays inside the main church. Although the main church is open on Sunday morning, during mass, parts of the building, including the choir, may be closed for tourist visits.

The exception is the Duomo Museum, which is open Thursday to Tuesday from 10:00 to 19:00. The museum is closed on Wednesday (not Monday as stated in older guides). No discounts are given on combination tickets, as these tickets and passes are generally valid for two days for sights not requiring time-slot reservations.

Also, note that the opening hours for collecting and returning audio guides are sometimes shorter than for the church itself.

Practical Tips for Visiting Milan Cathedral

Ticket prices for visiting Milan Cathedral range from €8 for the Duomo only to over €30 for access to all sights and using the elevator to the roof. Admission is half price for children 6 to 18 and is only free for children younger than 5 years old.

You can only buy tickets in person at the Ticket Shop of the Duomo if time slots have failed to sell out online. This is only sensible early mornings during quiet, low-season periods.

Modest dress is required for visiting the church, including for men, women, and children; no bare shoulders or shorts. Sports team t-shirts are often not allowed either, especially on days of major matches.

Food and drink are not allowed inside the church. For many sights in Italy, 500 ml is the maximum water bottle size, and lately, no water at all is permitted at many top sights, especially art galleries. No luggage or large bags — book luggage storage in advance.

Guided tours often include the full Duomo Pass, with admission to the museum and archaeological area, even if these are not visited as part of the tour.

Combination tours with Da Vinci’s Last Supper and La Scala or city walks may offer better value. Expect small discounts if buying tickets in combination with other sights such as La Scala and the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana.