Description
The Rotonda della Besana is a large Baroque complex on Via Besana in Milan, right by the old Bastions: a brick portico with undulating lines that encloses a garden and a church. Today it is a public park and a venue for exhibitions and events, and home to the Children's Museum.
In the middle stands the church of San Michele ai Nuovi Sepolcri, built on a Greek cross plan with an octagonal dome. Take a close look at the pillars inside: the capitals are decorated with skulls and bones. All around run the curving portico with its vaults and a garden of about 7,000 square meters.
Those skulls are no accident. The Rotonda was built in the late 17th century as the cemetery of the Ospedale Maggiore, the “foppone”, and some 150,000 people were buried here. Napoleon thought of making it the Pantheon of the Kingdom of Italy, but the plan fell with him: it later served as a barracks, a hayloft and the hospital's laundry.
In the middle stands the church of San Michele ai Nuovi Sepolcri, built on a Greek cross plan with an octagonal dome. Take a close look at the pillars inside: the capitals are decorated with skulls and bones. All around run the curving portico with its vaults and a garden of about 7,000 square meters.
Those skulls are no accident. The Rotonda was built in the late 17th century as the cemetery of the Ospedale Maggiore, the “foppone”, and some 150,000 people were buried here. Napoleon thought of making it the Pantheon of the Kingdom of Italy, but the plan fell with him: it later served as a barracks, a hayloft and the hospital's laundry.