San Maurizio al Monastero Maggiore, Renaissance church in Milan, Italy
San Maurizio al Monastero Maggiore is a Renaissance church in Milan whose grey Ornavasso stone facade has a dark central door under a curved pediment, three arched windows and a circular opening above. Inside, a vaulted nave is split by a partition wall into a public hall and the nuns' hall, both lined with 16th-century frescoes and flanked by small chapels.
Construction began in 1503 and continued for about fifteen years, incorporating remnants of Roman structures into the foundations. Gian Giacomo Dolcebuono and Giovanni Antonio Amadeo oversaw the work, which produced a convent and a place of worship for religious sisters.
The church takes its name from Saint Maurice, whose relic Emperor Otto I donated to the Benedictine monastery in 964. The Bentivoglio family funded the frescoes: Ippolita Sforza and Alessandro Bentivoglio were the main patrons, and four of their daughters entered the convent, Alessandra serving as abbess six times. Since 2010 the church has hosted Sunday services in the Byzantine Rite, in Greek according to the Italo-Albanian tradition, from October to June, and it also serves as a concert hall.
The building sits at Corso Magenta 13 and opens Tuesday to Sunday from ten in the morning to half past five in the afternoon, with no admission charge. The nearest metro stops are Cadorna and Cairoli, both within a few minutes on foot.
The rear hall holds an Antegnati organ dating to 1554, still occasionally played and among the oldest working instruments of its kind in the city. Religious sisters once followed the service through a metal grating without being visible themselves.
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