Monza Cathedral, officially the basilica of San Giovanni Battista, is the city's main church and houses the Iron Crown, one of the most famous royal regalia of Europe.
What to see
Its origins go back to the end of the 6th century: around 595 the Lombard queen Theodelinda founded, next to her palace in Monza, a basilica dedicated to Saint John the Baptist, the court's palatine chapel, already consecrated in 603, when the baptism of her son Adaloald was celebrated there. The queen was buried there, and in 1308 her remains were moved to the sarcophagus in the chapel dedicated to her. Of the Lombard basilica only a few archaeological remains and some marble slabs reused in the façade survive; the present cathedral, begun in 1300, is instead the product of a long building sequence between the 14th and 17th centuries, with the bell tower completed in 1620.
The gabled façade, in Lombard Gothic, with its cladding of bands of light and dark marble (Candoglia and Musso), the great rose window, the pulpit and the baptistery are due to the direction of Matteo da Campione in the second half of the 14th century; a radical restoration of the late 19th century, concluded in 1908, and a long campaign completed in 2020 defined its present appearance. Inside, the chapel of Theodelinda holds the late-Gothic fresco cycle by the Zavattari brothers, painted between 1444 and 1446 with episodes from the queen's life, and houses in a climate-controlled case the Iron Crown, which according to tradition contains one of the nails of the Crucifixion and for centuries served for the coronations of the kings of Italy. The Museo e Tesoro del Duomo, in the cloister and adjoining rooms, keeps early medieval goldsmiths' work, among it the famous hen with chicks in gilded silver.
Visiting
The cathedral stands in piazza Duomo, in the centre of Monza; the chapel of Theodelinda with the Iron Crown and the Museo e Tesoro del Duomo have their own hours and tickets, to be checked on the official website before visiting.
Our editors' tip
Look to the left of the portal for the reused marble slabs set into the façade, decorated with crosses and Christograms: they are among the very few visible remains of the Lombard basilica founded by Theodelinda around 595.
