Santa Maria delle Grazie
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How it came to be
Duke Francesco I Sforza of Milan ordered a Dominican convent and church on the site of an earlier chapel to St Mary of the Graces. The architect Guiniforte Solari began work in 1463, and the convent was finished by 1469.
Ludovico Sforza wanted the church as his family's burial place and rebuilt the apse and cloister, work credited to Bramante. For Ludovico, Leonardo da Vinci painted The Last Supper on the refectory wall from about 1495 to 1498. He used tempera on a dry wall rather than true fresco, and the paint began to flake soon after it was finished.
An Allied air raid on 15 August 1943 brought down most of the refectory, but the sandbagged wall with the painting survived. A 21-year restoration from 1978 to 1999 removed 18th- and 19th-century repainting. UNESCO listed the church and convent in 1980.
Travellers who came here
- 1867-07
He arrived by train on the evening of 16 July. In the book he described The Last Supper as battered, scarred and discoloured, with the disciples' legs kicked off by Napoleon's horses.
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