The Duomo di Milano: a success model for cultural management

The Duomo di Milano is at once a Cathedral and an entrepreneurial model.

The Duomo is not only recognized as one of the major gothic cathedrals in Italy and Europe, but it has also been an extraordinary and successful example of development for all the cultural institutions in Italy for over 600 years.

Since 1387, the Veneranda Fabbrica del Duomo di Milano is the secular institution that takes care of the symbol of Milan itself.

Furthermore since 2009 Veneranda Fabbrica del Duomo has been offering a yearly series of cultural activities and events designed to open up the Duomo of Milan to the residents of the city, to Europe and to the whole world, offering visitors an extraordinary opportunity to experience the Cathedral, a crossroads of spirituality, culture and art, in a unique dimension.

The Duomo has undergone important restoration works, for a total value of over 30 million euros, to present at its best for the Universal Expositions EXPO2015. New restorations are planned to maintain and enhance its immense patrimony, including high-tech intervention on the cathedral and contemporary art exhibitions. The interventions are part of an ambitious restoration plan, started in 2012.

In 2014 alone, The Veneranda Fabbrica del Duomo di Milano opened 18 restoration sites for the Duomo, resulting in more than 100,000 hours of restoration per year.

In the next three years, 35 million will be spent for extraordinary interventions that have already been identified.

The intervention on the Main Terrace is continuing, on the last aisle where the waterproofing of the vault is being concluded, with the disassembling and replacing of the marble plates.

The staff of the Veneranda Fabbrica is working to give back to the citizenship, in its ancient beauty, the Church of San Gottardo in Corte, located inside Palazzo Reale and recently leased free of charge to the Fabbrica by Milan Municipality.

Restoration of the spires is a complex intervention that is organized into the following stages:

• survey and study of the data;
• design and construction of the scaffolding;
• checking and re-doing of the electrical systems;
• cleaning of the marble surfaces with consolidation of the sound parts;
• restoration of the damaged architectural elements;
• removal and replacement of the parts beyond repair.