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Church of San Bernardino alle Ossa
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 Mostly represented styles: Baroque
The Church of San Bernardino alle Ossa has gained increasing notoriety in recent years, thanks to its ossuary and its location, close to Fontana square (to which its rear faces), just a few minutes' walk from the Cathedral. Consequently, more and more tourists, including foreigners, are visiting it.
It should be noted that the current church is the third version of the church.
HISTORY
The history of the church begins in 1145 (1127 according to other sources), when, in an area then occupied only by vegetable gardens, orchards and woods called Brolo (from which the Basilica of San Nazaro in Brolo also took its name, a Milanese nobleman named Gotifredo da Bussero had a large hospital for lepers built at his own expense. The hospital was built near the Santo Stefano Maggiore.
Since there was an obligation to bury those who died in hospitals in separate cemeteries, in 1184 the prior of the hospital obtained permission to create in front of the nearby basilica a cemetery reserved for those who died in it.
It is believed that an ossuary had been erected next to the Basilica of Santo Stefano as early as 1210, to gather the bones of the dead exhumed from the cemetery. In 1268, permission was granted for the construction of a small church (the first version), dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows, Saint Sebastian, and Saint Ambrose, to house the remains of the priors and brothers who ran the hospital.
Meanwhile, the Brotherhood of the Disciples (or, more precisely, the Confraternity of the Disciplinati), the first lay confraternity in Milan, had been founded at the Basilica of Santo Stefano. It was particularly dedicated to the care of the sick and those condemned to death. In exchange for the custody of the ossuary, in 1430 the confraternity was granted permission to build its own oratory above the church, by raising the church by one floor (two-story churches have now almost completely disappeared; the only one known to this writer is the Church of Sant'Agata ad Oggiono).
Saint Bernardino of Siena, canonized in 1450, was also a member of the Disciplini and was thus made the patron saint of the confraternity.
In December 1642, the bell tower of the adjacent basilica collapsed, overwhelming and destroying both the ossuary and the church of the Disciplini.
The church and the oratory above it were immediately rebuilt, and were completed in 1643 (the second version of the church), designed by Carlo Buzzi, architect of the Fabbrica del Duomo.
The reconstruction of the ossuary, however, was delayed due to lack of funds and could only resume in 1690, and was completed in 1695 when Sebastiano Ricci was recalled from Bologna to paint the dome and pendentives.
In 1712, a serious fire severely damaged the church, destroying its furnishings and the confraternity's archives. The Disciplini then decided to build a new, larger church (the third and current version of the church) with an octagonal plan, transforming the old church into the atrium of the new one, according to a design by Carlo Giuseppe Merlo. The new church was completed in 1754.
In 1786, the Disciplini confraternity was abolished and its property passed to the Royal Property Agency. In 1929, with the signing of the Lateran Pacts, it returned to the Ecclesiastical Authority.
The church and ossuary were completely restored between 1998 and 2002.
STRUCTURE
From the outside, the Church of San Bernardino alle Ossa is almost unrecognizable as a church, especially from the front, as the façade resembles that of a standard residential building, with windows and doors arranged regularly on three levels.
On the ground floor is the main entrance door, larger but surrounded by a simple cornice. To either side of it are two side entrances, with rich Baroque portals with volute-shaped gables and statues of Saint Bernardino of Siena and Saint Sebastian within the tympanum. Further outside are two rectangular windows with sumptuous Baroque cornices. The first and second floors each have five windows, all surrounded by Baroque-style cornices, more sumptuous on the first floor, more sober on the second. The same type of windows is also present on the front of the left façade. It was not possible to find information on what type of rooms or spaces these windows open to.
From the front, only the presence of a large octagonal tiburium at the top, with an elliptical oculus inscribed within an octagonal window on each side and an octagonal lantern, also with a window on each side, suggests that this is a church.
From the rear, the presence of the apse and choir, protruding from the main body, and the small bell tower connected to the central body by a walkway, make it more evident that the building is a church.
Entering the church, one enters an atrium, created from the much smaller previous church. Above the side entrances, two very darkened paintings are visible in the lunettes, about which no information could been found.
The atrium is divided into three transverse spans, with the walls punctuated by pilasters with partially gilded capitals.
On the left wall as you enter, hangs a canvas depicting the Crucifix with Saints Francis and Anthony of Padua, believed to be the work of the Baroque painter Juan Pantoja de la Cruz.
On the wall opposite to the entrance, to the left of the entrance to the main body of the church, is a niche with a rich Baroque frame containing a statue of Saint Rita of Cascia. In front of it is a beautiful wavy-shaped kneeler.
To the right of the atrium is a space that probably coincided with the presbytery of the previous church. On the back wall of this space is an altar with a statue of the Pilgrim Madonna. Behind it is a plaque with the names of those who fell during the Ethiopian War of 1935. On the wall to the right of this altar, recessed into the wall, beneath the window, is a bas-relief with the effigy of Saint Ambrose. On the ceiling is a stucco bas-relief with cherubs among the clouds within a mixtilinear frame.
To the left of the altar of the Pilgrim Madonna is the passage leading to the ossuary (see below).
The Putridarium
Even more strange, but much less known, the crypt under the church, where the bodies of deceased brethren were put sitting on stone benches. These benches were provided with appropriate wells designed to drain the decomposition liquids, liquids which then converged on a well in the center of the crypt.
If you are interested in a guided tour of this monument send an email!
Categories: Churches / Religious buildings
via Carlo Giuseppe
Merlo, 4 - 20122 Milano |
Further pictures of the Church of San Bernardino alle Ossa in the section Photography |