Altre Chiese

Santa Maria in Strada

Santa Maria in Strada

Santa Maria in Strada was erected for a community of Franciscan Tertiaries between 1348 and 1368 to a design by Ambrogio da Milano on the strata, or road, linking Monza to Milan. In 1393 it passed to the Augustinians of the Milanese convent of San Marco. The interior was remodelled in 1756 and the façade was restored in 1870. Despite several restorations, the front with its blind loggia and brick ornaments is one of the loveliest remaining Lombard Gothic façades, inspired by the work of the Pisan architect Giovanni di Balduccio (active in Milan from 1335 to 1349) as well as by Matteo da Campione’s façade for the local cathedral. The museum displays two frescoes orginating from the church, fragments of an Annunciation scene originally flanking the portal. Datable to the second half of the 16th century and revealing the influence of Giusto de’ Menabuoi, they have delicately rendered figures set against a background of damask-like gilded pastiglia work, a foretaste of the splendour of the International Gothic style. Also on display an elegant stone statue of the Madonna with Child depicted as “Maria Regina”, removed from the façade in 1985 and replaced with a copy. Dating from the first half of the 15th century, it is the work of an anonymous Lombard master who also executed several statues in Transalpine style for the capitals of Milan cathedral. The girdle around the Virgin’s waist probably alludes to the Augustinians’ devotion to the Madonna of the Girdle, a cult approved in 1439.