Capital of Lombardy and of Milan province (population,
1993 estimate: 1,334,171), North Italy, at the heart
of the Po basin. Because of its strategic position in
the Lombard plain, at the intersection of several major
transportation routes, it has been since the Middle
Ages an international commercial, financial, and industrial
centre.
The second-largest Italian city in population (after
Rome), it is a leading commercial, financial, and manufacturing
city and a major centre of intellectual and artistic
life. Milan is predominantly modern, surrounded by industrial
suburbs. It has many tall apartment and office buildings
in the business district and extensive residential and
industrial sections. An underground railway was opened
in 1964.
The principal square is the Piazza del Duomo, at one
end of which stands the Duomo (cathedral) a huge Gothic
structure of white marble, begun in 1386 and completed
in 1965. To the south-west of the Piazza del Duomo is
the basilica di Sant'Ambrogio (AD 386). Near the basilica
is the 15th-century church of Santa Maria delle Grazie.
Adjacent to the church is a former Dominican monastery,
in the refectory of which is the famous fresco of the
Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci.
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