Seeing Leonardo's Last Supper in Milan: the museum, not the church

The short answer

To see Leonardo's Last Supper you need a ticket for the Museo del Cenacolo Vinciano, not a visit to the church next door. The painting occupies the north wall of the former refectory of the Dominican monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie, according to the museum's own history page.[1] That refectory is the museum's exhibition hall, a separate visit with its own tickets and its own rules.[2]

The museum's news pages show tickets released in blocks covering several months at a time, with a reservation required for every ticket type.[7] Start at cenacolovinciano.org, the address the Pinacoteca di Brera's own site links to for the museum, and buy only through a link on that site.[5] Be aware that the museum's pages link to two different booking sites, as set out below.

The church and the refectory are different visits

The museum says that since September 1980 the Last Supper, together with the church and the Dominican monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie, has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site.[4] According to the museum's page on the complex, construction of the church and convent began in 1463, and the refectory stands on the convent's western side.[3] Its history page adds that Ludovico Sforza entrusted the restructuring of the church's tribune to Bramante and commissioned the refectory painting from Leonardo.[1]

One listing, though, is not one visit. XTOUR lists the museum, the Cenacolo Vinciano, and the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie as two separate places. XTOUR's reading is that someone who walks into the church has seen the church; the painting is seen only from inside the museum.

Who runs the museum

The museum's own news page says it passed to the management of the Pinacoteca di Brera from 3 December 2024, under Ministerial Decree 299 of 25 September 2024, leaving the Lombardy regional directorate of national museums that had managed it since 2014. The same page describes a Milan museum centre made up of the Pinacoteca, the Last Supper museum, the Biblioteca Braidense and Palazzo Citterio.[6]

How the museum describes ticket sales

The museum's news listing announces each release in advance: tickets for September to December 2026 went on sale on 23 June 2026, after earlier releases for February to April and May to August. The notice for the latest release says a reservation is mandatory for every type of ticket.[7] The museum's Info page goes further: reservation is required for everyone, infants included, and for every kind of admission, free ones included.[9]

The Info page also sets out a standing quarterly release schedule, while the releases for May to August and September to December 2026 each covered four months, so the two do not match.[7][9] XTOUR does not predict the next release date. The museum announces it in its news section, so that is the page to watch.

For a visitor who has not found tickets for their date, the Info page says availability updates daily and that "additional tickets will go on sale every Wednesday at 12 noon throughout the following week" on its online purchasing platform. It also says tickets carry the visitor's name, to prevent scalping.[9]

Where the museum's own pages disagree

The museum's pages point to two different online booking sites. Its contact page, and the "Book the ticket" button at the top of its site, send buyers to the licensee's site cenacolovinciano.vivaticket.it; the contact page also names a call centre and an email address for groups.[8] The ticket-release notices from June 2025 to March 2026 name lastsupper.shop instead.[7] That site calls itself "The services of the Cenacolo Vinciano Museum" and links back to cenacolovinciano.org.[10] Even the Info page links to both: its "online" booking button goes to vivaticket, and it says free first-Sunday tickets are sold only there, while its links for the weekly additional tickets and "the sales platform" go to lastsupper.shop.[9] XTOUR cannot tell from these pages which channel the museum treats as current, so it gives neither as the answer.

The practical point is to buy only through a link on cenacolovinciano.org, rather than one from a search result.

The dating of the painting differs too, even within the museum's own page for it: the text says it was painted between 1494 and the beginning of 1498, while the page's summary gives 1495 to 1498.[4]

What XTOUR does not tell you

XTOUR does not publish prices, opening hours, visit length, closing days, ticket limits or arrival rules. The museum sets them on its Info page and in its news notices; read them there before you go. XTOUR does not sell Last Supper tickets.

For Milan as a base, see the Milan destination page and the Italy travel guide.