Basilica di S. Ambrogio

The facade of S. Ambrogio, as seen from its portico

This weekend when Bob was sending out follow-up e-mails for his business trip to Milan, we noticed that our inbox was filling up with "out of office autoreplies." Oh, yes! We'd forgotten, St. Ambrose's Day is this week.

St. Ambrose is the patron saint of Milan. His feast day is a major holiday, combined with the Immaculate Conception on the 8th. I have no idea how many of the Milanese go to church on these days, but no one is at work.

CZ and I were at the Basilica di S. Ambrogio just a couple of weeks ago during our trip, so I thought I'd post some photos of it in honor of this early Bishop of Milan who baptized St. Augustine.

These first two photos above are of 12th C. Lombard-style relief sculptures, the first on the doors to the basilica, and the second on the pulpit. The Lombard style is the sort of Celtic Romanesque style which seems to be characteristically Milanese. Lombard architecture is more "primitive" than the earlier Roman style, but it has a charm of its own. The church's facade (top of post) is also Lombard.

Most of these churches were actually first constructed in the 4th century (this one under the auspices of Ambrose himself), but only small parts of the original structures remain. And they used bits of the earlier Roman buildings as foundations. If you find all this jumble of construction and reconstruction a little hard to follow, so did I! If I counted right, there were at least six building phases going on in this one church. Even the altar above is made of bits saved from a roof collapse during the Lombard era.

The photos above are of medieval frescoes on a column inside the church, and of the mosaic in the apse. What you can't tell in the photos, of course, is that there was some lovely a capella singing going on in a mass behind and under the apse.

To the right, in the treasury, is an even older mosaic from the original 4th C. church. (Not pictured.) This older chapel is bracketed by an ornate Baroque foyer. Somehow, it works.

And this is just me outside in the portico, trying to figure out what all those signs say in Italian. I can't tell whether my confusion springs from the language or seeing so many different building phases at once. But I do know that Milan is very nice in the fall. Everything looks and feels quite different, and I find that Italian life has a cozy side. Or as they say, accogliente.