DUOMO DI MILANO | AREA ARCHEOLOGICA

The Baptistery of San Giovanni alle Fonti is the first baptistery with a font and octagonal building in Christendom. The octagon recalls, with the seven of creation, the eighth day, that of eternity, but also the eight evangelical beatitudes. St Ambrose, who is said to have begun it in 387, may have been inspired by the octagonal construction of Maximian's imperial mausoleum: the catechumens, on entering the baptistery, were thus to experience the sensation of entering a tomb in which the old man in them would die and, as St Paul says, rise to new life in the lustral water. Inside, the baptistery has eight niches, alternately rectangular and semicircular, facing the sides of the large central basin, which is accessed by descending three steps. In front of the buttresses between the niches, on which a large dome with rich mosaic decoration was set, stood porphyry columns supporting a marble entablature. In the font of St John's, St Ambrose baptised St Augustine on the Easter Vigil of 387.

To access the Archaeological Area with the Museum Pass, it is necessary to collect the Culture Pass at the Cathedral Museum ticket office in Piazza del Duomo 12.

Note: With the Culture Pass not access to the Cathedral Terraces. Access to the Duomo Terraces is allowed only once during the validity period of the Museum Pass, upon collection at the same ticket office of the specific ticket (stairway or lift ascent). After the first and only entrance included in the season ticket, any further access to the terraces shall be subject to the ordinary rate. The issue of tickets is subject to availability at the ticket office. The season ticket cannot be used for special events such as: evening opening of the Terraces with musical accompaniment, evening opening of the museum with aperitifs, concerts.