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Two French men charged with trespassing after climbing Milan Duomo

Two French nationals were arrested and charged with trespassing on Friday after climbing to the top of Milan’s Duomo cathedral, as part of a social media stunt.

Published: 12 August 2023 09:49 CEST

Milan's city centre is expected to bring in stricter traffic limits in 2024. Photo by Miguel MEDINA / AFP

A police officer spotted the two men, aged 18 and 20 around 6am, while they were free-climbing the building’s main spire, according to local media reports.

It is still unclear when exactly they started the 108.5 metre-ascent and which side of the Duomo they scaled, though video footage available online showed them using the scaffolding for ongoing restoration works on their way up.

SULLA GUGLIA 🔴

Questa mattina, intorno alle 6, due climber francesi si sono arrampicati sulla guglia della Madonnina del Duomo. Presente la Polizia locale, che è prontamente intervenuta. I giovani sono stati fermati, identificati e denunciati. #Duomo #Milano #11agosto pic.twitter.com/RQ5Bx89QPj

— Mi-Tomorrow (@MiTomorrow) August 11, 2023

After reaching the top of the main spire – known as the guglia della Madonnina due to its famous statue of the Virgin Mary – the two men started their descent.

Once back on the ground, they were arrested by local police officers, who had in the meantime cordoned off the area. They then charged the free climbers with trespassing under article 633 of Italy’s criminal code.

The two men each face a fine of up to 1,032 euros, according to local media.

Following the arrest, investigators identified them as part of a well-known group of urban climbers and ‘parkourists’ (people who traverse obstacles without equipment), who regularly post their stunts on social media.

Madonnina statue, Milan Duomo

A view of the ‘Madonnina’ statue atop the main spire of Milan’s Duomo cathedral. Photo by Marco BERTORELLO / AFP

Gianluca Mirabelli, chief of Milan’s operative police command, referred to them as urban climbing “professionals”, adding that photos of similar feats in other European countries had been found on their mobile phones.

After checks from local police forces, the Duomo was said to have suffered no damage during the climb.

According to Mirabelli, there was no connection between Friday’s Duomo stunt and an incident that occurred on Monday evening, in which three as-yet-unidentified individuals climbed on top of the Vittorio Emanuele Gallery and vandalised it using spray paint.

The Security Department of the ‘Veneranda Fabbrica del Duomo’ is still carrying out investigations, and is viewing the footage of all the cameras.

The two French climbers weren’t the first to scale to the top of Milan’s cathedral. A Polish national also reached the world-famous Madonnina statue in May 2022 to reportedly take a selfie.

Member comments

Anonymous - 15 August 2023 at 05:58 CEST

More morons. Hit them with the maximum fine.

Become a Member to leave a comment.

The case of Ilaria Salis, 39, has been front-page news in Italy after she appeared in court in January handcuffed and chained, with her feet shackled.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni enjoys cordial relations with Hungary’s Viktor Orban but the case has caused bilateral tensions, with Rome making official complaints on behalf of Salis.

The teacher from Monza, near Milan, was arrested in Budapest in February last year.

Prosecutors allege Salis travelled to Budapest specifically to carry out the attacks against “unsuspecting victims identified as or perceived as far-right sympathisers” to deter “representatives of the far-right movement”.

She was charged with three counts of attempted assault and accused of being part of an extreme left-wing criminal organisation in the wake of a counter-demonstration against an annual neo-Nazi rally.

Salis denies the charges – which could see her jailed for up to 11 years – and claims that she is being persecuted for her political beliefs.

A defiant Salis told Italian newspaper La Stampa via her father in an interview published last week that she was “on the right side of history”.

On Friday, one of the victims and witnesses of one of the attacks are scheduled to testify, according to one of Salis’s Hungarian legal representatives.

Lawyer Gyorgy Magyar complained to AFP ahead of the trial that Salis has not yet received all the case documents in “her native language”.

“The translators promised to finish translating the documents in November, but until that (is done) she will not give any substantial testimony, and rightfully so,” he added.

Salis spent more than 15 months behind bars, but on Thursday was moved to house arrest on a 16 million forints (around 41,000 euros) bail, according to her father Roberto Salis.

Protesters in Milan hold a banner reading “Bring Ilaria Salis home” during a demonstration demanding Salis’s release from prison and against detention conditions in Hungary. (Photo by Piero CRUCIATTI / AFP)

She might be freed before any verdict is rendered on her case, if she is elected as a Member of the European Parliament.

Last month, the Italian Green and Left Alliance (AVS) nominated her as their lead candidate for the upcoming European elections.

If the party garners enough votes at the ballot, Salis might be eligible to access parliamentary immunity, leading to the suspension of the criminal proceedings against her.

Politicised case

The case of Ilaria Salis has been highly politicised, with the Hungarian government frequently commenting on it.

Salis’s father has accused the Hungarian authorities of double standards, claiming that they treated neo-Nazis, who allegedly assaulted anti-fascist activists around the same time, much more leniently.

“In this country, those people are considered patriots while anti-fascists are enemies of the state,” Roberto Salis told AFP.

He claims that his daughter was kept in inhumane prison conditions until January when her case received significant media coverage.

“For eight days, she was kept in a prison in a solitary cell, without being provided with toilet paper, sanitary towels, and soap.

“During that period, she would have needed the sanitary towels… in Italy, we would consider this torture,” Roberto Salis said.

The Council of Europe has criticised Hungary’s overcrowded prisons.

According to Eurostat, Hungary in 2022 recorded the highest prisoner rate per 100,000 people in the EU, followed by Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Hungarian officials have denied accusations of ill-treatment.

Prime Minister Orban’s nationalist government has repeatedly denounced the media for allegedly depicting Salis as a “martyr”, instead pointing to what it called the “brutality” of her alleged crimes.

“What we see here, in a quite outrageous case, is someone committing a brutal and public crime, and the European far-left is standing up for her and even trying to make her an MEP,” Orban’s chief of staff Gergely Gulyas said on Thursday.

“It is incompatible with everything we see as European values, human decency and the necessity of punishing crimes,” he added.

Salis’s father has complained that the Italian government has provided only “limited” help to his daughter.

Italy’s Ambassador to Hungary is expected to attend the trial on Friday, the embassy told AFP.