The basilica of San Lorenzo, today also known as San Lorenzo alle Colonne, is among the oldest churches in the city. The building was rebuilt and modified several times in its external forms, almost completely preserving the original plan of the late imperial era, which was built between 390 and 410: together with the columns of San Lorenzo in front, once part of the antiportico of the building, it is considered among the major monumental complexes of the late imperial Roman era in Milan, in the period in which the Roman city of Mediolanum (the modern Milan) was the capital of the Western Roman Empire (a role it held from 286 to 402). The basilica is also believed to be the first centrally symmetrical building in the Christian West and is one of the early Christian basilicas of Milan. If throughout the Middle Ages the Basilica of San Lorenzo remained a symbol of the Roman imperial legacy in Milan, in the Renaissance the temple became a symbol of the lost classical canons sought by humanists, as well as a famous case study for the static solutions adopted to support a such a monumental dome, and was studied among others by Bramante, Filarete, Leonardo and Giuliano da Sangallo. The period between the 11th and 12th centuries was very troubled for the building: heavily ruined by two fires in 1071 and 1075, its dome collapsed in 1103, only to be destroyed again together with part of the building in a another fire in 1124. The church was then rebuilt in Romanesque style while maintaining the original internal layout unchanged: this was possible thanks to the prestige that the basilica enjoyed for being the major monument that marked the imperial legacy of the city. After the reconstruction, the church had to show a lantern similar to that of the Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio, however much more monumental. In 1573 the church once again saw the collapse of its dome during a liturgical celebration, fortunately without causing any casualties. Cardinal Carlo Borromeo, given the importance of the building, did his utmost to ensure that the reconstruction work began immediately. During the reconstruction, a miraculous event occurred which had been predicted by Archbishop Carlo Borromeo: in 1585 a sick woman was healed in front of a painting of the Madonna del Latte displayed in Piazza della Vetra. Following this event, donations multiplied, allowing the reconstruction work to progress more rapidly. In 1626, upon completion of all the projects, the painting of the Madonna del Latte was transferred to the main altar, where it still remains. The plan, whose structure has remained almost unchanged since its foundation, is made up of an overlapping square and circle , properly called tetraconch, or a central square-shaped plan with four apses, one on each side.
Chapel of Sant'Aquilino:
The chapel, originally a free-standing building, is the largest in the complex and has an octagonal plan with alternately semicircular and square niches. The entrance to the chapel is preceded by an atrium through which you enter passing through an original marble portal from the Roman era thickly decorated with vegetal and animal themed reliefs: the atrium, with a square plan and covered by a barrel vault, was once covered with frescoes, of which few fragments remain, and mosaics. The main altar, on which the remains of Sant'Aquilino were placed in a silver urn made by Carlo Garavaglia, is positioned in a recess of the chapel in which the only trace of the seventeenth-century decoration remains, consisting of frescoes by Carlo Urbino representing the discovery of the body of Sant'Aquilino.
Source Wikipedia: it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilic...)
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