Category: Lombardy
Brescia: Santa Maria delle Grazie
Brescia: San Pietro in Oliveto
Brescia: Santissimo Corpo di Cristo
Brescia: Santa Maria dei Miracoli
Brescia: The Duomo Nuovo
Brescia: The Duomo Vecchio
Brescia: San Faustino in Riposo

According to tradition, Faustinus and Jovita were two brothers from Brescia who were martyred during the reign of the Roman emperor Hadrianus (117-138). However, the ‘Acts’ describing their lives were only written much later and are exceptionally unreliable. Apparently this did not prevent the two brothers from becoming patron saints…
Brescia: Santi Nazaro e Celso

The church of Santi Nazaro e Celso is dedicated to two fairly obscure martyrs, Nazarius and Celsus. According to tradition, it was Saint Ambrosius of Milan (ca. 340-397) who dug up their relics in the cemetery surrounding the Basilica Apostolorum, a church he had founded. This basilica was later renamed…
Brescia: Sant’Alessandro
Milan: Museo del Duomo
Milan: The Duomo
Milan: San Gottardo in Corte
Milan: Sant’Eustorgio
Milan: Pinacoteca di Brera
Milan: Castello Sforzesco
Milan: Biblioteca and Pinacoteca Ambrosiana

The driving force behind establishing the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana was Federico Borromeo, archbishop of Milan from 1595 until his death in 1631. Borromeo, cousin of Saint Carlo Borromeo, was an important figure in the counter-Reformation movement. In 1609 he founded the Bibliotheca Ambrosiana, one of the first public libraries in Europe.…
Milan: Museo Poldi Pezzoli
Milan: San Simpliciano
Milan: San Nazaro in Brolo

Saint Ambrosius (ca. 340-397) is credited with founding three or four churches in Milan in the late fourth century. The Basilica Martyrum (now the Sant’Ambrogio) was one of them, the Basilica Virginum (now the San Simpliciano) another. The third church was the Basilica Apostolorum, or the Basilica of the Apostles.…