Basilica di Sant'Eustorgio, Milan

Sant’Eustorgio is a basilica whose story reaches back to the fourth century. It bears the name of Eustorgio of Milan, the bishop connected with bringing the relics of the Magi to the city. As local tradition has it, those relics once rested here, making this church a destination for pilgrims travelling towards Rome or the Holy Land.

The tradition still shapes what you can see: the bell tower carries a star instead of a cross, recalling the sign associated with the Magi. The relics were taken to Cologne after Milan was sacked in 1162, and fragments returned in 1903 and 1904; they are kept near the old sarcophagus associated with the Magi. Look at the chapel behind the apse: the Portinari Chapel was created from 1462 to 1468, with frescoes by Vincenzo Foppa and a marble tomb by Giovanni di Balduccio.

Pellegrino Tibaldi is the architect associated with the basilica, whose rebuilding belongs to Romanesque architecture. The present façade is a nineteenth-century reconstruction.