San Pietro in Gessate Church, church in Milan
San Pietro in Gessate is a brick church in central Milan with a facade of pink and white marble in a Renaissance style. Inside, rows of granite columns with Corinthian capitals divide the space into a central nave and two side aisles, each lined with decorated chapels.
Work on the church began in 1447 under architect Guiniforte Solari and was finished by 1475. It replaced an older building on the same site that had been dedicated to Saints Peter and Paul.
The Grifi Chapel contains frescoes by Bernardino Buttinone and Bernardo Zenale showing scenes from the life of Saint Ambrose. These paintings show how wealthy Milanese families used their private chapels as a way to display their status and faith at the same time.
The church sits in central Milan and is easy to reach on foot from many parts of the city. Visiting outside of service times gives more freedom to move around and look at the chapels at your own pace.
The church was once connected to a navigable moat that linked directly to the Navigli canal network, used by the Umiliati religious order to move wool through the city. No trace of this waterway is visible today, but it explains why the building was placed where it is.
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