Santa Maria delle Grazie

Duke Francesco I Sforza commissioned this Dominican convent and church in Milan on the site of an earlier chapel, with architect Guiniforte Solari completing the Gothic nave by 1469. Donato Bramante later reshaped the building's east end, adding the crossing, dome, and apse in a Renaissance style he finished around 1497.

The convent's refectory holds The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci, painted directly onto the wall in the 1490s using an experimental technique that began deteriorating almost immediately. A 1943 bombing destroyed much of the refectory around it, but sandbags protecting the wall kept the mural intact. Restoration work running from 1978 to 1999 stabilized what remains of the original paint.

UNESCO listed the church and convent as a World Heritage Site in 1980, and visits to see the mural today are limited to small, timed groups to protect it from humidity and foot traffic.