Description
The Basilica of Sant'Eustorgio is one of the oldest churches in Milan, near Porta Ticinese. It is the church of the Three Kings: here, according to tradition, their relics arrived, and inside are two masterpieces that alone are worth the visit.
It all begins with a cart, an enormous sarcophagus and two exhausted oxen that at some point collapse to the ground, at the gates of the city. For Bishop Eustorgius it was a sign: the Magi wanted to stay there.
So, according to tradition, the basilica was born around 344. The sarcophagus with the relics was a gift from Emperor Constans, arrived from Constantinople and originally intended for the Basilica of Santa Tecla.
The Magi stayed in Milan for centuries. Then, in 1162, Barbarossa arrived, and his chancellor Rainald of Dassel took them to Cologne, where they still are. What stayed here was the empty sarcophagus, with a star and the inscription "Sepulcrum trium Magorum."
The Milanese asked for them back in vain for centuries. Only at the start of the twentieth century did a few fragments return: two fibulae, a tibia and a vertebra, now in a case near the sarcophagus, in the Chapel of the Magi, in the right transept.
The jewel of the church is the Portinari Chapel, built between 1462 and 1468 by a Florentine, Pigello Portinari, agent of the Medici Bank in Milan. It is the clearest evidence of Florentine architecture in fifteenth-century Milan, with two square spaces topped by domes.
On the walls is a cycle of frescoes by Vincenzo Foppa on the life of Saint Peter Martyr and of the Virgin. In the center is the Arca of Saint Peter Martyr, carved by Giovanni di Balduccio in 1339: a marble sarcophagus held up by eight pillars, with statues of the virtues.
Peter of Verona was a Dominican preacher, killed by a heretic in 1252 and made a saint. From the thirteenth century the basilica was the Dominicans' main seat in Milan.
Along the right side open the chapels of the great families: the Brivio, the Torelli, the Visconti. Behind the high altar, below floor level, you can also see the remains of the early Christian hall.
Don't miss
• The Portinari Chapel.
• The Arca of Saint Peter Martyr.
• The sarcophagus of the Magi.
• The bell tower.
Did you know?
• On the bell tower, in place of the cross, there is an eight-pointed star: the star of the Magi.
• The bell tower, 75 meters tall and built between 1297 and 1309, housed the first public clock in Italy.
• The story goes that Peter Martyr, dying, managed to write "credo" in the dust.
It all begins with a cart, an enormous sarcophagus and two exhausted oxen that at some point collapse to the ground, at the gates of the city. For Bishop Eustorgius it was a sign: the Magi wanted to stay there.
So, according to tradition, the basilica was born around 344. The sarcophagus with the relics was a gift from Emperor Constans, arrived from Constantinople and originally intended for the Basilica of Santa Tecla.
The Magi stayed in Milan for centuries. Then, in 1162, Barbarossa arrived, and his chancellor Rainald of Dassel took them to Cologne, where they still are. What stayed here was the empty sarcophagus, with a star and the inscription "Sepulcrum trium Magorum."
The Milanese asked for them back in vain for centuries. Only at the start of the twentieth century did a few fragments return: two fibulae, a tibia and a vertebra, now in a case near the sarcophagus, in the Chapel of the Magi, in the right transept.
The jewel of the church is the Portinari Chapel, built between 1462 and 1468 by a Florentine, Pigello Portinari, agent of the Medici Bank in Milan. It is the clearest evidence of Florentine architecture in fifteenth-century Milan, with two square spaces topped by domes.
On the walls is a cycle of frescoes by Vincenzo Foppa on the life of Saint Peter Martyr and of the Virgin. In the center is the Arca of Saint Peter Martyr, carved by Giovanni di Balduccio in 1339: a marble sarcophagus held up by eight pillars, with statues of the virtues.
Peter of Verona was a Dominican preacher, killed by a heretic in 1252 and made a saint. From the thirteenth century the basilica was the Dominicans' main seat in Milan.
Along the right side open the chapels of the great families: the Brivio, the Torelli, the Visconti. Behind the high altar, below floor level, you can also see the remains of the early Christian hall.
Don't miss
• The Portinari Chapel.
• The Arca of Saint Peter Martyr.
• The sarcophagus of the Magi.
• The bell tower.
Did you know?
• On the bell tower, in place of the cross, there is an eight-pointed star: the star of the Magi.
• The bell tower, 75 meters tall and built between 1297 and 1309, housed the first public clock in Italy.
• The story goes that Peter Martyr, dying, managed to write "credo" in the dust.