Chiesa di San Lorenzo Maggiore - Milan, Italy
N 45° 27.482 E 009° 10.866
32T E 514159 N 5033850
Dating from the 4th century AD, the Chiesa di San Lorenzo Maggiore is the oldest church in Milan. With ancient architecture that might seem more at home in Ravenna.
Waymark Code: WMHPA1
Location: Lombardia, Italy
Date Posted: 07/30/2013
Views: 3
San Lorenzo recalls the days when Milan was the capital of the Western Roman Empire.
Founded in the 4th century, San Lorenzo Maggiore was at the time one of the largest buildings in the west. The foundations were made of enormous blocks taken from other Roman sites and the interior was decorated with marble along the lower half and mosaics up higher.
The church was rebuilt in the 11th century and heavily renovated in the 16th century. The church was restored in the 1930s.
San Lorenzo has maintained the original Byzantine structure over time, with a dome and four towers resembling those of Constantinople's Hagia Sofia. A recent detailed stratiographic study of the walls identified five phases of construction in antiquity from Theodosius I to the early Lombard period.
The church is a quatrefoil central-plan building, with a double-shell layout, consisting of an open central area (the inner shell) surrounded by an ambulatory (the outer shell). The quatrefoil design is expressed in four exedrae (semicircular recesses) of two stories, with five arches per exedra. As usual for the period, the interior had a matroneum (balcony for female worshippers), now partially disappeared. Also the polychrome interior decoration is now missing. The dome was also rebuilt in Baroque style after the original had crumbled down.
Other chapels were added to the original edifice. Notable is the octagonal Capella di Sant'Aquilino (chapel of St. Aquilino), adjoining the main church to the south. The chapel, which may have originally been built as an imperial Roman mausoleum, features important 4th century Paleochristian mosaics. Among the mosaics is included a formulaic depiction of Jesus, as "Christ the Lawgiver" ("Traditio Legis" - "handing over the law") or possibly "Christ the teacher." Jesus is seated on a throne, flanked by a "school" of his Apostles, with a scroll box at his feet. The chapel was later dedicated to the martyr Saint Aquilino of Milan (or Saint Aquilinus of Cologne), with his remains being housed in the chapel. A 17th century reliquary ark for the saint was crafted by Lombardian architect Carlo Garavaglia (flourished 1634-1635). The fresco The Rediscovery of Saint Aquilinus of Cologne's Corpse, by Carlo Urbino, decorates the wall behind the main altar in the Sant'Aquilino chapel.
Building Materials: Brick
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