Description
The Basilica of San Simpliciano is one of the oldest churches in Milan, in a quiet square off Corso Garibaldi. It looks like a Romanesque church, but beneath its skin it keeps the tall walls of a 4th-century basilica.
Tradition attributes it to Saint Ambrose, who is said to have dedicated it to the virgins on a burial ground along the road to Como. Scholars disagree: some think it was Simplicianus, his successor, who wanted it, and who lived and was buried here.
Inside, the church has three aisles. The highlight is in the apse: the Coronation of the Virgin by Bergognone, frescoed in the late 1400s, one of the masterpieces of the Lombard Renaissance. Look at the walls and you can still see the original tall arches, with the large windows that were walled up in the Middle Ages.
Outside, the gabled facade has a central portal from the 12th century, with pairs of lions, while the windows and smaller portals were redone in 1870. The apse and the octagonal lantern tower are Romanesque.
Next to the church opens the monastery's 15th-century cloister. After the war, restorations removed the 19th-century additions and brought part of the early Christian structures back to light.
In 1176, the tradition says, three doves flew out of the basilica and perched on the cross of the Carroccio at Legnano, staying there throughout the battle against Barbarossa. For the Milanese they were the three martyrs Sisinnius, Martyrius and Alexander, whose relics are kept here.
In the 1500s the governor Ferrante Gonzaga had the bell tower lowered by about 25 meters, like almost all those near the Sforza Castle, so that no one outside the walls could see into the fortress.
According to an old tale, the bells had the power to cure toothache. A merchant rang them by pulling the rope with his teeth: he hit his head on the ceiling, but the pain vanished.
Tradition attributes it to Saint Ambrose, who is said to have dedicated it to the virgins on a burial ground along the road to Como. Scholars disagree: some think it was Simplicianus, his successor, who wanted it, and who lived and was buried here.
Inside, the church has three aisles. The highlight is in the apse: the Coronation of the Virgin by Bergognone, frescoed in the late 1400s, one of the masterpieces of the Lombard Renaissance. Look at the walls and you can still see the original tall arches, with the large windows that were walled up in the Middle Ages.
Outside, the gabled facade has a central portal from the 12th century, with pairs of lions, while the windows and smaller portals were redone in 1870. The apse and the octagonal lantern tower are Romanesque.
Next to the church opens the monastery's 15th-century cloister. After the war, restorations removed the 19th-century additions and brought part of the early Christian structures back to light.
In 1176, the tradition says, three doves flew out of the basilica and perched on the cross of the Carroccio at Legnano, staying there throughout the battle against Barbarossa. For the Milanese they were the three martyrs Sisinnius, Martyrius and Alexander, whose relics are kept here.
In the 1500s the governor Ferrante Gonzaga had the bell tower lowered by about 25 meters, like almost all those near the Sforza Castle, so that no one outside the walls could see into the fortress.
According to an old tale, the bells had the power to cure toothache. A merchant rang them by pulling the rope with his teeth: he hit his head on the ceiling, but the pain vanished.