Santa Maria Segreta Church, Baroque revival church in Milan, Italy.
Santa Maria Segreta Church is a neo-baroque church built between 1912 and 1918 to a design by Augusto Brusconi, inspired by the earlier church of the same name. Its facade, modeled on Sant'Alessandro in Zebedia, is flanked by two low square bell towers; the right one holds five bells cast in Seregno by Ottolina. The interior has a single barrel-vaulted nave with three chapels per side and a three-apse chevet.
An earlier church of Santa Maria Segreta stood near the Cordusio, built in 836 and rebuilt in Baroque style in the 17th century; it was demolished in 1911 for the city's post office building. The parish received land beside Piazza Tommaseo in 1909, and architect Augusto Brusconi designed the new church on the model of the demolished one. Cardinal Andrea Carlo Ferrari laid the first stone in May 1911; construction ran from 1912 to 1918. In 1924 the facade of the demolished church of San Giovanni Decollato alle Case Rotte was re-erected along the right flank.
The name "Segreta" comes from the Latin secretum, a pagan shrine to Demeter that stood on the site of the earlier church; Saint Ambrose ordered such temples demolished and churches built in their place. Inside, the church keeps works from the demolished predecessor, including two pulpits by Luigi Canonica beside the presbytery and a 1492 Neapolitan-school panel of the Coronation of the Virgin.
The church stands on Via Mascheroni facing Piazza Tommaseo, in Milan's Municipio 1. The entrance is on the central part of the facade, under the triangular pediment. The right flank holds the remounted facade of San Giovanni Decollato alle Case Rotte. As an active parish church, access to the interior depends on Mass times.
The name "Segreta" comes from the Latin secretum, a small Roman shrine to Demeter that stood on the site of the earlier church. In 1924 the facade of the demolished church of San Giovanni Decollato alle Case Rotte was reassembled along the right side of the building.
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