The church of Sant'Ambrogio is a Catholic place of worship in Legnano and is the city's church with the oldest origins. The building put up in 1590 is based on an earlier church of the mid thirteenth century and was enlarged in 1740, when it took on its present appearance.
What to see
The first mention of a church dedicated to Sant'Ambrogio in Legnano is in a document of 1389, the Liber Notitiae Sanctorum Mediolani. The original church was perhaps a simple little chapel dedicated to Saint Thomas, 6 metres wide and 10 long, with two aisles, a very tall bell tower and a portico at the entrance; a document of 1566 already gives it as dedicated to Sant'Ambrogio. In 1590 it was rebuilt from the foundations: only the walls beside the altar and the bell tower were saved. In 1992, during restoration, the foundations of the apse of the old church came to light, built with stones from the Olona, together with a potsherd datable to the mid fifth century AD. It also housed the oldest public school in Legnano, ordered by Saint Charles Borromeo during his pastoral visit of 1570, and was enlarged in 1740 because the space was not enough for the growing number of pupils.
The single nave, before the enlargement 15 metres by 9, has three cross-vaulted bays and a barrel-vaulted apse; in front is a portico held up by two side pillars and two central columns, with a cross vault. Important are the seventeenth-century paintings by Giambattista and Francesco Lampugnani: a fresco on the left side of Saint Ambrose returning to Milan and a canvas at the back with the Virgin with Saints Charles, Francis and Magnus, and in the lunettes eight biblical prophets; of the vault only some putti remain. The twentieth-century Neo-Baroque decorations are fine, and the organ was built in 1886 by Antonio De Simoni Carrera, last exponent of the local Carrera firm.
Visiting
The church is in Legnano. The sources consulted give no opening hours or visiting arrangements: check them.
Our editors' tip
According to a legend, a treasure of gold and bronze objects was buried with the archbishop of Milan Leone da Perego, sought in vain during the eighteenth-century enlargement.
