The sanctuary of San Martino Vescovo is the old church of Balsamo, of which the saint is patron and protector, in Cinisello Balsamo. It stands at the junction of via San Saturnino and via San Martino, facing the viale delle Rimembranze. For centuries it was the reference church of the Balsamo community, and the village grew up around it until the early twentieth century.
What to see
The first news of a church dedicated to Saint Martin dates from the end of the thirteenth century, when an Ecclesia Sancti Martini of the parish of Desio appears in Goffredo da Bussero's Liber Notitiæ Sanctorum Mediolani. The present layout, a Latin cross with three aisles, is due to the great works of the early twentieth century led by don Antonio Colombo. The façade, plastered white, has a semicircular window and, above the string course, the stucco inscription «DIVO MARTINO DICATUM»; beside the portal are two niches with Saint Martin and Saint Anne with the Virgin as a child, and at the top of the pediment the statue of the blessing Virgin holding a large crucifix. The bell tower, finished in 1856, is more than sixty metres high, ochre yellow with a small red dome, and has five bells.
Inside, the cycle of frescoes by Carlo Farina, begun in 1892, shows flying putti and episcopal emblems on the ceiling, the four evangelists in the pendentives and Saint Martin borne up in glory in the dome. The wooden statues of Christ at the Column and of Our Lady of Sorrows come from the demolished church of San Michele in Monza and were placed here in 1789. Under the high altar are kept the relics of Saint Saturninus, translated in 1926 into an urn of bronze and crystal by the architect Scanavini.
Visiting
With the new parish church in piazza Soncino, built between 1957 and 1961, the old building lost importance and since 1978 it has been called a sanctuary; masses were held there until 2012. After the earthquake of 27 January 2012 the Fire Brigade declared it unfit for use, and in August 2022 the restoration of the bell tower was completed. The sources consulted do not say whether and when the interior can be visited again: check with the parish.
Our editors' tip
The five bells are historic: in 1943 the three largest were lowered from the belfry and delivered to the Barigozzi foundry in Milan to be melted down, but with the armistice of 8 September they were never melted and came back to Balsamo, thanks to a ruse by don Piero Carcano, who kept them hidden in a haystack.
