Churches

The Church of St. Sigmund dates back to 1463, when its construction was commissioned by Bianca Maria Visconti on the same spot where the church in which she married Francesco Sforza in 1441 once stood. The building is one of the architectural jewels of the Lombard Renaissance before the coming of Bramante. The interior began being painted in 1535 and it is one of the most harmonious decorative complexes of sixteenth-century Mannerism in northern Italy, and the central part of the transept is occupied by spectacular wooden choir stalls. The cloister of the old convent sits adjacent to the church.

Erected between 1339 and 1345 in the typical form of a Lombard Gothic monastery, the church's interior has since undergone many alterations and now only the façade is true to the original construction. Thanks to the presence of the adjacent monastery of the Augustinian Monks, the church was the center of a vibrant religious and cultural life, and over the centuries was enriched with important works of art, including a 1494 painting by Perugino, and other sculptures, bas-reliefs and frescoes.

The Church of St.Homobonus, built around the year 1000, overlooks the square, together with "Palazzo Pallavicino" and "Palazzo Cattaneo". This church was initially dedicated to St. Giles, but was later renamed after the Patron Saint of the city, St. Homobonus, who actually died in the church during a Mass in 1197. The interior of the church was at one point completely transformed with spectacular frescoes, of which the most noteworthy is in the cupola, "The Glory of St. Homobonus", a fresco that stands out for the illusions it creates.

The Church of St. Luca believed to founded in 1165, was enriched in 1415 with both a rose window that features rich terra-cotta frames, and an elegant porch supported by two lions and decorated with an elegant frieze. Inside, the church has been extensively altered over the years, but visitors can admire 15th C. frescoes in one of the chapels and in the sacristy. The square is completed by a small octagonal temple dedicated to The Risen Christ.

The church and the adjoining monastery were built in the 10th C., and the Benedictine, Humiliated and Teatini monks each successively occupied the monastery. The interior presents a single nave with wooden statues and altars in the side niches, and it is richly decorated with frescoes. The presbytery houses a precious marble altar and semi-precious stones and the altarpiece "The Virgin Enthroned" by Giulio Campi. The splendid cloister arcade can be found adjacent to the church.

The original foundation of the church of St. Michael is due, according to tradition, to the Queen Theodolinda that contributed to the construction of this and other churches in the city after the death of her husband Agilulfo in 615. Built in Longobard style, the church was rebuilt at the end of the twelfth century. Columns divide the interior into three naves and a notable artistic heritage adorns its wall, of which the most outstanding is the fresco of "The Last Judgement" found in the semi-domed apse.