Short history
At the end of the Fifteenth century in "Contrada dei Lomellini" (now Via Incoronata) there was a house of ill fame. An image of the Virgin Mother was frescoed on its facade.
Brawls, duels, quarrels, in which drunks and prostitutes were involved, happened every day. During one of these brawls, according to the legend in September 1487, the image of the Virgin Mother began to cryand invited the people who were present to build a church dedicated to her in that very place.
The town Government, whose intention was to close that house of ill fame, took the advantage and demolished it. Then they called an architect from Lodi named Giovanni Battaggio, formerly one of Bramante's pupils, to realise the project of the church.
The first stone was laid on May 29th, 1488, but after about an year Battaggio had a quarrel with the purchasers and broke the contract.
Battaglio had been then replaced by two engeneers, Giangiacomo Dolcebuono and Lazzaro Palazzi, who following the original drawing and went on with the church construction and finished it in 1493.
On January 30th, 1494, with a solemn ceremony, attended by all civil and religius authorities, the fresco of the Virgin Mother was put on the high altar in a wooden frame made by the Lupi brothers. (This frame is now kept in the Castello Sforzesco Museum in Milan).
The belfry was built following Dolcebono's drawing between 1501 and 1503 and in 1540 the floor, previously made of wood, was replaced with a marble one made by Cristoforo Pedoni from Cremona. This operation lasted three years.
To decorate the inner part of the church, very famous artists and printers were employed, such as: Giovanni and Matteo Della Chiesa, who frescoed john the Baptist's chapel (these frescoes are presently in the civic museum) and Ambrogio da Fossano, called Bergognone, who frescoed the high altar chapel.
More considerable was the pictorial contribution of the Piazza family, at first with Albertino and Martino and then with Martino's son, Callisto, who worked for over thirty years, from 1529 on. In the Seventeenth century, the new Baroque art style was added to the Renaissance style of the church.
Francesco De Lemene, a poet and very influential character of the time, thought of having the choir built behind the hogh altar and so asked to the papal architect, Carlo Fontana, to project the apse and the new altar.
The impressive frescos above the choir had been carried out by Stefano Maria Lanzani, called "il Legnanino" and Andrea Lanzani, while the choir wooden stalls were made by Carlo Antonio Lanzani.
In this same period a new sacristy was built. It was bigger than the old one and furnished with superb cupboards made of walnut wood by Antonio Rotta. The last interventions which ended the decoration pharse, are of the first half of the Nineteenth century and gave the present appearance to this imposing church.
The previous stuccoes were replaced with eight frescoes made by Enrico Scuri from Bergamo.
Also the facade was modified by architect Afrodisio Truzzi, who created an open gallery with twin windows built above the arcade of the antrance.
The last important restorations, lasted six years and ended in 1995, gave back the original ancient manificence to the church.
