The Basilica of San Lorenzo Maggiore in Milan

San Lorenzo: testimony to Roman Milan

Our guided tour of the Basilica of San Lorenzo Maggiore and the Chapel of Sant’Aquilino will take you back in time, among the splendors of the RomanMediolanum , sometimes forgotten even by the Milanese themselves. A strategic center of the Roman Empire and the capital of the Western Empire between the 3rd and 5th centuries AD, Milan preserves the glorious vestiges of its past under the radar, starting right from the neighborhood of Porta Ticinese, today among the places of the city’s liveliest nightlife: who would have thought it? Here, as early as the 4th century, stood the Basilica of San Lorenzo, outside the city walls, not far from the major public buildings of the Roman city: the amphitheater, the imperial palace and the circus, arranged near the via Ticinensis, the road that connected Pavia to Milan and constituted the most important route of access to the urban center. We do not know exactly when the basilica was built, but its location, the valuable reused materials with which it was constructed, and the grandiose central-plan architecture that characterizes it suggest that between the mid-fourth century and the early fifth century it was the emperors themselves who financed its ambitious project–almost as if to underscore Milan’s strategic role as a northern bulwark against barbarian pressure on its frontiers!

The basilica: the site of imperial ceremonies

Perhaps conceived as a space intended for both large civil ceremonies and religious services, the basilica was connected no less than to the imperial mausoleum, today’s Chapel of St. Aquilinus, which can now be visited again after a long restoration and can be appreciated in its splendid decorations, layered over the centuries. So let us enter with our tour guides the city’s oldest basilica: its history continued well beyond the Late Antique period, when, between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, the church retained a role and position of primary importance… Did you know, for example, that the so-called via sacra, the stretch between San Lorenzo and the Duomo, was the access road to the city traveled by the most illustrious guests – bishops, popes, rulers and emperors? A symbol of imperial Milan and the shrine of the city’s first bishops, San Lorenzo also stood out as an exemplary architectural model for the Renaissance: its central plan, a symbolic reminder of divine perfection and the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, set a school among the greatest architects of the time, from Bramante to Leonardo da Vinci himself.

A basilica traversed by history

Today, thanks to the guided tour led by our licensed guides, you can discover the many stories of this ancient building, starting – eyes upward – with the grating decorations that recall the martyrdom of the early Christian saint to whom the basilica is dedicated, St. Lawrence. Having survived the Fire of the Stork, the attack of Barbarossa, earthquakes and the collapse of the central dome, up to the bombings of World War II, the Basilica still stands majestically before our eyes, together with the imposing colonnade that proceeds it: these are the sixteen columns of San Lorenzo, among the archaeological finds dearest to the Milanese! Clear evidence of ancient Mediolanum, indelible traces of a glorious past that still deserves to be told today!