Church of St. Maria della Fonte, Chiesa Rossa (Red Church) in Milano

Via Chiesa Rossa, 55 20142 Milano

Visits: the monument is open to visitors every day just before and at the end of the religious functions that take place in the following hours: working days 18.30 pm / non working days 11.30 am.

Conservative restoration of the Church of Santa Maria alla Fonte and of the parsonage (2000-2003)

The buildings known as Cascine Chiesa Rossa (Farms of the Red Church) include five buildings: the Church, the Parsonage, the Cloister, the former Stable - now Library - and the former House, in addition to a large public park.
The Church consists of a single nave with an apse covered by the basin. This is the oldest building of the monumental complex and still looks like in the last project of the second half of the twelfth century. The building is located 3.00 m below street level due to the construction of Naviglio Pavese in 1365 and especially to its expansion in 1783. After these huge interventions, the Church was divided into two floors and a cloister entrance was built, leading from Via Chiesa Rossa into the building from the bottom of the north-west wall. In 1960, the Municipality of Milan bought Cascine Chiesa Rossa and in 1966 began a major restoration work eliminating all nineteenth-century interventions and sealing the frescoes so to bring back the Church at its twelfth century appearance.
Unfortunately, the restoration was not completed and the buildings remained unused for over twenty years, during which the slow and relentless deterioration was unavoidable. The last interventions aimed at completing the works begun in 1966 that enabled the establishment of a small religious community and the reopening to the public of this important monument.

By Francesca Romana Galli