The basilica of San Magno is the main Catholic place of worship of Legnano. It is dedicated to Magnus of Milan, Ambrosian archbishop from 518 to 530, and is in the Lombard Renaissance style of the Bramante school; since 1950 it has been a minor basilica by decision of Pope Pius XII.
What to see
Before San Magno the main church was the Romanesque parish church of San Salvatore, which partly collapsed at the end of the fifteenth century: the people of Legnano obtained from the archbishop and from Ludovico il Moro permission to demolish its remains and to build on the same spot a more sumptuous temple. The first stone was laid on 4 May 1504 and the masonry was completed on 6 June 1513, with contributions above all from the Lampugnani and Vismara families; the basilica was consecrated on 15 December 1529. The original plans have been lost and Bramante's name appears only in later testimonies, such as a writing of 1650 by the provost Agostino Pozzo, but it can reasonably be believed that the design derives from a drawing of his; the works were supervised by Gian Giacomo Lampugnani. The bell tower was built between 1752 and 1791, after the collapse of that of the old church, and is more than forty metres high.
The plan is typically Renaissance: a central octagon with a short transept, which gives the church a cross shape, and four small chapels at the corners, with no main façade that dominates the others. The interior keeps works that stayed true to the sixteenth-century Lombard style: the frescoes of the main vault by Gian Giacomo Lampugnani, the remains of the paintings of the chapel of San Pietro Martire by Evangelista Luini, the frescoes of the main chapel by Bernardino Lanino and an altarpiece by Giampietrino. Above all stands the polyptych by Bernardino Luini, behind the high altar, commissioned on 5 July 1523 and considered by art historians one of his masterpieces, if not the best: at the centre a Madonna and Child enthroned, with a cherub and eight musician angels, and at the sides Saints John the Baptist, Peter, Magnus and Ambrose.
Visiting
The basilica is on piazza San Magno, in the centre of Legnano. The sources consulted give no opening hours or visiting arrangements: check them.
Our editors' tip
Luini's polyptych has attracted purchase offers more than once: in 1857 a British museum offered four hundred and twenty thousand svanziche, and the offer was refused.
