Santa Maria delle Grazie is a church and Dominican convent in Milan, listed as a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site. The main attraction of the church is Leonardo da Vinci's painting of the Last Supper, painted on the wall of the monastery dining room.
The construction of the Dominican monastery and church was begun by order of Duke Francesco Sforza I of Milan on the site where a small church dedicated to Our Lady of Charity had stood. The architect was Guiniforte Solari. In 1469 the monastery was completed, but the church was still under construction for some time. The new Duke, Ludovico Sforza, decided that the church should become the tomb of the Sforza family and ordered to rebuild the cloister and apse - the works were completed after 1490. In 1497 Ludovico's wife Beatrice was buried here.
It is believed that Donato Bramante worked on the design of the church apse, although there is no reliable confirmation of this. Nevertheless, his name is embossed on a small piece of marble on the vaults of the church, the inscription dates from 1494.
In 1543 the chapel of the Holy Cross in the right part of the nave was decorated with Titian's painting "Laying of the Crown of Thorns", which is now kept in the Louvre in Paris (taken away by Napoleon's troops at the end of the 18th century). This chapel is also decorated with frescoes by Gaudenzio Ferrari. And in the small cloister next to the door to the sacristy, you can see a fresco by Bramantino. Another attraction of the church are the frescoes by Bernardo Zenale.
But, of course, the main value of Santa Maria delle Grazie is the world-famous painting "The Last Supper" by Leonardo da Vinci. It was painted in 1495-98 and depicts the scene of Jesus Christ's last supper with his disciples. During World War II, on the night of 15 August 1943, bombs dropped by British and American troops destroyed the church and monastery. Most of the refectory was in ruins, but some walls miraculously survived, including the one depicting Da Vinci's Last Supper. From 1978 to 1999, a major restoration of the painting was carried out, which allowed it to be preserved for posterity.
