Crypt of San Sepolcro
The Hypogeal Church of San Sepolcro, known to the public as the “Crypt,” is actually a true underground church whose origins date back to 1030, when the Milanese mint master Benedetto Rozzone had it built on the site of the ancient forum of Mediolanum.
Built in the center of the city, it is, so to speak, its navel
Saint Charles Borromeo
The crypt of San Sepolcro
Built as a private church around 1030 by Rozzone, a mint master, it was consecrated in 1036 by Archbishop Ariberto d’Intimiano and dedicated to the Holy Trinity. On July 15, 1100, after the reconquest of Jerusalem, the then Archbishop of Milan, Anselmo IV da Bovisio, in memory of this extraordinary event, changed the dedication to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
The crypt allows visitors to experience one of the oldest testimonies to the history of the city of Milan. The flooring comes from the pavement of the ancient 4th-century Roman Forum, the main square of the Roman city, where major civil and religious activities took place. On the large slabs of white Verona stone, it is possible to trace the rut left by a cart, and on another, an ammonite, a fossil embedded in the stone.
Leonardo da Vinci, who spent nearly twenty years in Milan at the court of Ludovico il Moro, personally visited it: in the Ambrosiana, among the pages of the Codex Atlanticus, is preserved a map of the city of Milan on which Leonardo drew a small square indicating the Church of San Sepolcro, the true center of Milan.
Reopened to the public after fifty years in 2016, the crypt underwent a complex restoration project funded by the MIC and completed in late spring 2019. The restoration project primarily focused on restoring the decorated surfaces. The starry sky painted on the vaults, enriched by a rosette decoration, is perhaps inspired by the original decoration of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.
What’s on
