Basilica di San Simpliciano exterior

©Stephanie Ong/Lonely Planet

Basilica di San Simpliciano

Milan


San Simpliciano is one St Ambrose's four Milanese churches, built on a paleo-Christian cemetery with a red-brick Romanesque wrapping. Martyrs Sisinio, Martirio and Alessandro are buried here, and supposedly rose from their graves in the form of doves to give courage to the Lombard League in the battle of Legnano in 1176, leading to the defeat of Barbarossa. The beautiful fresco in the apse is Bergognone's Coronation of the Virgin (1515).


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