The Basilica di San Calimero is a church in
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
, northern
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
. Its name refers to
Saint Calimerius :''There is also a beatus named Calimerius of Montechiaro (ca. 1430-1521).''
Calimerius ( it, Calimero, Byzantine Greek: ''Καλημέριος'') (died 280 AD) was an early bishop of Milan. He is honoured as a Saint in the Catholic and Easte ...
(died 190 AD), an early
bishop of the city. It dates from the 5th century but was almost completely rebuilt in 1882 by the architect
Angelo Colla in an attempt to restore it to the "original" medieval structure.
What remains of the ancient church include: the 16th century
crypt
A crypt (from Latin ''crypta'' "vault") is a stone chamber beneath the floor of a church or other building. It typically contains coffins, sarcophagi, or religious relics.
Originally, crypts were typically found below the main apse of a chur ...
, with a noble frescoed vault by the
Fiammenghini; a small fresco with the ''Madonna and Two Female Saints'' (15th century, attributed to
Cristoforo Moretti
Cristoforo Moretti (documented in Lombardy and Piedmont 1451 – 1475) was a Lombard painter of the quattrocento who worked in a late International Gothic style very similar to that of Michelino da Besozzo’s last period. Few of the unsigned wor ...
) in the apse; a ''Crucifixion'' by
Il Cerano
Giovanni Battista Crespi (23 December 1573 – 23 October 1632), called Il Cerano, was an Italian painter, sculptor, and architect.
Biography
He was born in Romagnano Sesia, the son of a painter, Raffaele Crespi, and moved to Cerano with his fa ...
, and a noteworthy ''Nativity'' by
Marco d'Oggiono
Marco d'Oggiono (c. 1470 – c. 1549) was an Italian Renaissance painter and a chief pupil of Leonardo da Vinci, many of whose works he copied.Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Marco D'Oggione", ''Catholic Encyclopedia'' (New York: Robert Appl ...
. Other medieval frescoes are in the annexed sacristy.
The crypt also houses Calimerius' relics and a pit located in the same place in which the former's bones were found in the water.
See also
*
Early Christian churches in Milan
Early Christian churches in Milan are the first churches built immediately after the Edict of Milan (Edictum Mediolanense) in February 313, issued by Constantine the Great and Licinius, which granted tolerance and religious liberty to Christianit ...
Dioceses established in the 5th century
Calimero, Basilica di San
Roman Catholic churches completed in 1882
5th-century churches
Gothic architecture in Lombardy
Tourist attractions in Milan
19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Italy
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