How tall is the Duomo di Milano?
The Duomo is 108.5 metres tall at the tip of the Main Spire, where the gilded Madonnina stands — the statue itself measuring 4.16 metres. Inside, the central nave rises to approximately 45 metres.
By tradition, no building in Milan stands higher than the Madonnina — modern towers like the Pirelli Building and Allianz Tower carry replicas of her on their roofs to keep the rule technically intact.
How long and wide is the Duomo?
The cathedral is 158.6 metres long and 92 metres wide. Inside, 40 pillars divide the space into five naves, with columns 24.5 metres high.
How many people fit inside?
The Duomo holds up to 40,000 people. That capacity makes it the largest church in the Italian Republic and one of the largest in the world.
How many statues are on the Duomo?
Over 3,400 statues, according to the Veneranda Fabbrica, plus 150 gargoyles, 96 giants and 410 corbels for statues. One of them is Napoleon, placed on a spire after he ordered the facade finished in 1805.
How many spires does the Duomo have?
135 spires, most of them around 17 metres tall. The Main Spire, built between 1765 and 1770, carries the Madonnina and completes the 108.5-metre height.
How many stained glass windows are there?
55 stained glass windows. The three apse windows behind the altar are the giants of the set at 20.7 by 8.5 metres each; we cover the windows and everything else in the interior in what’s inside the Duomo.
How long did the Duomo take to build?
Nearly six centuries: construction began in 1386 and the final details were completed in 1965, when the last bronze portal was inaugurated on 6 January 1965. The Veneranda Fabbrica del Duomo, established in 1387, has run the works for more than 630 years and still maintains the building today.
How many steps to the Duomo rooftop?
Around 250 steps by the stairs route to the terraces. The lift is one-way and partial: it goes up only, to a lower terrace level, with about 90 further steps to the highest walkway — and everyone descends by stairs.
The first terrace level sits at 31 metres above the ground and the second at 45 metres; the highest walkable terrace covers around 1,530 square metres, matching the internal surface of the main nave below it.
How big is the Duomo’s organ?
15,800 pipes, making it the largest instrument in Italy, second largest in Europe and seventh largest in the world. It was built in 1938 by Mascioni and Tamburini, and its tallest pipe measures over nine metres.
How much gold is on the Madonnina?
The last re-gilding, in 2012, used 6,750 sheets of pure gold over the statue’s 33 copper plates. Underneath, a 1967 restoration replaced her corroded iron core with a stainless steel structure weighing 584.8 kilograms.
What is the oldest part of the Duomo site?
The octagonal early Christian baptistery under the cathedral, which dates to 335 — over a thousand years older than the Duomo itself. It can be visited in the archaeological area beneath the cathedral floor, included in the full-pass tickets.
Above ground, the oldest working institution is the Veneranda Fabbrica’s music chapel, active continuously since 1402, and the high altar was consecrated by Pope Martin V on 16 October 1418 — five and a half centuries before the building around it was declared finished.
What do visitors rate the Duomo?
4.8 out of 5 across 207,429 Google reviews (knowledge panel, 26 August 2026). In the 120 recent reviews we read in full, the rooftop terraces were mentioned in 76 — by far the most-praised part of the visit — and the stained glass led the interior with 25 mentions.
What marble is the Duomo made of?
Candoglia marble, from the quarry above the hamlet of Candoglia in Piedmont that Gian Galeazzo Visconti granted to the Fabbrica on 24 October 1387. Blocks travelled to Milan by water — Lake Maggiore, the Ticino, the Naviglio Grande — until 1920, and the quarry is still active for restoration stone. The full story is in our architecture guide.
If these numbers have talked you into seeing it in person, you can compare Duomo tickets — cathedral-only entry starts from €12, and the rooftop versions are where the 3,400 statues stop being a statistic.