Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio, Minor basilica in central Milan, Italy.
Sant'Ambrogio is a brick Romanesque basilica begun around 1080 in central Milan, with a nave of about 1128 and rib vaults from about 1140. Its facade carries a round-arched portal, a large round window and a row of small arches under the gable, and an arcaded brick courtyard stands in front. Two square brick towers rise at the rear; inside, pointed arches of alternating red brick and pale stone rest on grey stone columns with carved capitals, and faded mural fragments remain on the leftmost pillar.
Ambrose had the building erected between 379 and 386 to house the relics of martyrs Gervasius and Protasius. Later rebuilds in the 11th and 12th centuries gave the complex its current Romanesque form.
The name comes from Ambrose, Milan's patron saint, whose remains lie with those of two martyrs in a silver shrine from the 1800s. Believers visit the crypt to pray and honor the three saints at this site.
The entrance is through the 9th-century quadriportico, whose arcade of brick columns and semi-columns leads to the central portal; the capitals carry carved lions, boars, angels and human heads. The atrium was once used to shelter catechumens before baptism and later for civil and religious meetings. The altar stands where Ambrose's stood, and the porphyry columns of the ciborium still rest on the original pavement.
A column inside displays two holes that legend says appeared when the devil hit the stone during an argument with the saint. Visitors often look at the marks with curiosity and try to imagine the story behind them.
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