Albin Sebastian

The church of San Giuseppe is a church in Milan located a short distance from Piazza della Scala , on Via Giuseppe Verdi. Built in the first half of the 17th century , it is considered the masterpiece of Francesco Maria Richini , who designed the spaces by joining two centrally planned bodies to form a longitudinal plan. The church, which conventionally marks the beginning of the Milanese Baroque period , is among the most representative buildings of the first Lombard Baroque and represented for the first years of the 17th century the prototype of the longitudinal plan church in northern Italy and in part of central Europe .

The monument to Leonardo da Vinci is located in Piazza della Scala in Milan. This historic square is bordered by the famous Teatro alla Scala, the town hall and the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele. The monumental sculpture was created by sculptor Pietro Magni and was unveiled in 1872 after 15 years of work. Although this work caused controversy at the time, today it is one of Milan's most famous monuments honoring the artist Leonardo da Vinci.

This graceful monument was erected in the late 19th century and serves to commemorate one of Italy’s most influential literary figures, Dante Alighieri, sometimes referred to simply as ‘il Sommo Poeta’ (or ‘the Supreme Poet’). He is most famously the author of the Divine Comedy: a three-part work that narrates the story of the poet’s journey through the afterlife (including Hell, Purgatory and Paradise), guided by the ghost of the ancient Roman poet Virgil, to find his lost love, Beatrice. The work set the benchmark for the Italian language of today. Moreover, the Divine Comedy was a formative influence on some of the most famous writers of all time, including Chaucer, Shakespeare and Milton.

The Complex of San Giovannino degli Scolopi includes various functions including the shops in the lower part, overlooking the public streets and, in the highest part of the building, the Church and the Ximenian Observatory with its museum and geo-meteorological laboratories and seismic.

This is an ancient structure, the result of the composition of different buildings intersected in functions and typologies, with various shared spaces including accessories, and in particular some entrances from the public road.

The rebuilding of the Church began in 1579 by Bartolommeo Ammannati. The project was inspired by the church of Gesù in Rome (1581). With Ammannati's death in 1592, the works were entrusted to Giulio Parigi and subsequently to Alfonso Parigi the Younger until their completion in 1661.

Ammannati's project, according to which the church would have had a Latin cross plan, was modified by creating a building with a single nave with chapels in the side walls with an apse of smaller proportions than the maximum width of the building.

It was founded in 1508 with a portico façade due to the 1610 renovation carried out by Gherardo Silvani, under the patronage of the Ricci family, to repair the offence caused by Antonio Rinaldeschi to the image of the Madonna placed on the side of the nearby church of Santa Maria degli Alberghi. It was restored in the 17th century by Gherardo Silvani with the addition of the portico (around 1640).

The interior of the Church of Santa Margherita in Santa Maria dei Ricci in late Baroque style, with a single nave, was realised in 1769-1772 by Zanobi del Rosso. The vault was frescoed by Lorenzo del Moro with the Assumption of the Virgin Mary; other episodes from the Life of the Virgin Mary were depicted by Giovanni Camillo Sagrestani on the side walls of the chapels; the high altar houses the venerated image of the Madonna dei Ricci; in the first chapel, a panel painting of St Margaret of Antioch (14th century), set into a 17th-century canvas.