Santa Maria delle Grazie ("Our Lady of Grace") is a famous church and Dominican convent in Milan, included in the UNESCO World Heritage sites list.
The church is also famous for the mural of the Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci, which is in the refectory of the convent.
The Duke of Milan Francesco I Sforza ordered to build a Dominican convent and a church in the place where a small chapel dedicated to St. Mary of the Graces was.
The main architec...
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Santa Maria delle Grazie ("Our Lady of Grace") is a famous church and Dominican convent in Milan, included in the UNESCO World Heritage sites list.
The church is also famous for the mural of the Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci, which is in the refectory of the convent.
The Duke of Milan Francesco I Sforza ordered to build a Dominican convent and a church in the place where a small chapel dedicated to St. Mary of the Graces was.
The main architect was Guiniforte Solari, the convent was completed by 1469 while the church took more time. The new duke Ludovico Sforza decided to have the church as the Sforza family burial place and rebuild the cloister and the apse which were completed after 1490.
Ludovico's wife Beatrice was buried in the church in 1497.
The apse of the church is widely believed to be by Donato Bramante. However, there's no real evidence of the fact, but that Bramante lived in Milan at the time, and he is once quoted in the acts of the church (a marble delivery in 1494)....
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