Built around the 8th century to accommodate the bodies of S. Vittore and S. Satiro, in the area where were some small Christian parish churches and the imperial mausoleum.
The basilica was reconstructed around the thousand, in the same place where a Benedictine monastery was established. In 1560, with the reconstruction of the monastery, in the meantime transferred to the Olivetan Congregation, the church was also reconstructed and completed with the facade after 1602.
The latter, unfinished, strikes for simplicity contrasting with the sumptuous interior, having as only decoration the Diocletian window and the lesenes thought to match the columns of a porch that unfortunately was never realized.
The interior is divided into three aisles with six chapels per side, decorated by Milan’s greatest contemporary artists, such as Daniele Crespi, Ambrogio Figino, Ercole, and Camillo Procaccini. The main nave features a large vaulted roof with a great perspective effect.
The dome is richly decorated by Crespi himself and by Guglielmo Caccia called Moncalvo. Impressive the figurations in the pendives (The Four Evangelists), the tholobate (the Eighth Sibille), and the cap (80 coffers with as many Angels Musicians “isolated from each other, each intent of its exclusive melody”.
The vast presbytery, in the terminal apse, houses an imposing wooden chorus. Except for the marble floor, rebuilt in the 1930s, the church has retained most of its original materials and furnishings.
USEFUL INFO
Admission: free
How to reach: Metro S. Ambrogio, Bus 94
Address:Â Via San Vittore, 25, 20123 Milano MI
