Explore Milan’s Duomo Museum: see sculptures, stained glass, reliquaries, art, and the Modellone included with most Duomo di Milano tickets.
Discover the Duomo Museum in Milan, where the treasures of Milan’s cathedral are displayed away from the vast spaces of the church itself. Inside you’ll find the Modellone scale model, medieval and Renaissance sculptures, stained-glass windows, tapestries, reliquaries, and liturgical art that together tell the story of Milan’s most famous landmark.
Admission to the Duomo Museum is included in most Milan Cathedral tickets and guided tours.
Museo del Duomo di Milano
While the marble façade and rooftop terraces of the Gothic Duomo di Milano draw the crowds, the museum next door offers a quieter, more revealing experience. Many pieces here were created originally for the cathedral but are now preserved indoors: statues removed from spires, stained glass saved from damage, and objects central to centuries of worship.
In this setting, what feels monumental inside the cathedral becomes approachable. Statues can be studied at eye level, stained glass examined panel by panel, and reliquaries admired in detail. The museum highlights both the artistry and the civic ambition that shaped Milan’s cathedral, a project that has unfolded over more than six hundred years.
The Fabbrica del Duomo
Construction of Milan Cathedral began in 1386 and immediately surpassed the scale of any single architect or generation. (It was officially completed in 1965!) The city founded the Veneranda Fabbrica del Duomo to finance and maintain the project, an institution still active today.
Sculptors and glassmakers often had to produce scale models before full-size works were commissioned, while, throughout the centuries, many weathered originals had to be replaced by new copies. Preserved by the Fabbrica, these became the museum’s foundation, as a physical archive of the Duomo’s heritage.
Treasury and Reliquaries
A visit to the Milan Duomo museum begins with the treasury: ivories, crosses, and goldsmith’s work dating from the 5th to the 13th centuries. Early highlights include:
- Diptych of Five Parts (late 5th century), an ivory and gem-studded book cover.
- Cover of the Evangeliary of Aribert (c. 1020), richly decorated with precious stones.
- The Cross of Aribert (c. 1040).
Later rooms show liturgical objects from the 15th to 17th centuries. Look for the feathered Mitre of St Charles, Michelino da Besozzo’s Madonna of the Idea, and reliquary busts of Milanese saints.
Sculptures in Motion
The museum preserves many of the 3,400 original figures and 150 gargoyles that once adorned the cathedral. Early Gothic prophets and patriarchs display stiff drapery and solemn faces.
By the 15th century, Renaissance sculptors introduced more natural poses and expressions, echoing the ideals of Donatello and Michelangelo. Seen up close, the statues become a dialogue across centuries rather than distant decoration.
Stained Glass Stories
The Duomo di Milano is also a cathedral of light. With over 164 windows and more than 3,000 figures, its stained glass is among Europe’s richest. Panels in the museum range from early Gothic work by French and German glaziers to Renaissance designs by local artists. Later additions came from Giuseppe Arcimboldo and, in the 19th century, Giuseppe Bertini of the Brera Academy.
San Gottardo in Corte
The current museum route offers a detour through the Church of San Gottardo, built in 1336 as the Visconti palace chapel. Its Gothic bell tower and the tomb of Azzone Visconti by Giovanni di Balduccio remain the highlights. The interior has a fairly simple restored baroque nave, but visit the courtyard next to the museum to see the full-scale 2015 copy of the famous Madonnina.
Madonnina of Milan Cathedral
No symbol in Milan is more beloved than the Madonnina, the gilded Virgin placed atop the highest spire in 1774. At over four meters tall, she became Milan’s civic emblem. In the museum, preparatory models reveal the design process, the original iron frame, and a wooden bust. The fine 2015 copy places her presence at eye level to underscore her role as both art and religious symbol.
Tapestries and Paintings
Monumental tapestries once decorated Milan’s cathedral during feast days. These mostly 16th- and 17th-century works, woven in Antwerp and Brussels, combined Italian design with northern technique. Favorites include the Episodes from the Passion of Christ and the playful Dancing Cherubs.
A rare painting inside the museum is Tintoretto’s Christ Disputing with the Doctors in the Temple (1638). (Most original paintings remain inside the cathedral, while the Grande Scuole di San Rocco in Venice displays over 60 Tintorettos.)
The Modellone Scale Model
Among the most fascinating exhibits is the Modellone, a 1:22 wooden scale model of the cathedral begun in the 16th century. Nearly four meters long, it allowed architects and patrons to visualize competing designs before committing to stone. Modified over centuries, it embodies the collective vision behind the cathedral’s six-hundred-year creation.
A Living Archive
Unlike most museums, the Museo del Duomo remains part of the cathedral’s ongoing life. Fragile originals are cycled indoors while copies maintain the building’s appearance. Conservation labs attached to the Fabbrica restore marble, glass, and metal, and exhibitions change as works rotate in and out. The museum is therefore not static but a reflection of the Duomo’s continuous renewal.
The museum also has a large display of sculpture models and miniature proposals produced before full-size sculptures were commissioned.
Tickets and Visitor Information
The museum is included in all tickets that cover entry to the cathedral. There is no separate museum ticket. The basic Duomo+Museum ticket currently costs €10 (€5 ages 6–18, free under 6).
While the museum is seldom covered by guided tours of Milan Cathedral and roof terraces, many of these Duomo tours include free museum tickets.
Tips on buying Duomo tickets explain the various combinations with cathedral, rooftop, and archaeological area access. The museum requires no time slot reservation, but must usually be visited within two days of seeing the cathedral.
Transportation to the Duomo Museum in Milan
The Museo del Duomo is in the Palazzo Reale on Piazza del Duomo, just south of the cathedral near the Novecento (20th-century art museum). Entrance is well marked and separate from the main ticket office. Metro Duomo station is directly below, with trams also stopping nearby.