In January 1873 Alessandro Manzoni, aged eighty-seven, fell on the steps of this church on his way to Mass: he hit his head, never recovered and died in May. It is the last of the many Milanese stories that pass through here, in a square wedged between Palazzo Marino, La Scala and the Galleria. Saint Charles Borromeo wanted the church for the Jesuits who had just arrived in the city and had Pellegrino Tibaldi design it in 1569 following the rules of the Council of Trent to the letter: a single nave so everyone could see the altar, a side pulpit so everyone could hear the sermon, no columns in the middle. It became the model for Counter-Reformation churches across half of Italy.
What to see
The space: two great bays covered by sail vaults, six Corinthian columns set against the walls, and the pinkish colour of the Angera stone from Lake Maggiore, brought back by the restorations. Along the walls, the eight confessionals carved between 1596 and 1603 by the Taurini, with Bible stories cut into their doors: they are among the finest pieces of furniture in Milan and nobody looks at them.
In the chapels, Cerano's Vision of Saint Ignatius; Simone Peterzano's Deposition, of 1591, with the hard light his pupil Michelangelo Merisi took with him to Rome; and Lucio Fontana's ceramic Sacred Heart, of 1956, placed where a sixteenth-century altarpiece had been: the Jesuits have always commissioned contemporary art, and still do, so much so that in the house next door there is a museum of what they have gathered. Many of the canvases come from the church of Santa Maria della Scala, demolished in 1776 to build the theatre: when La Scala was made, its paintings moved here.
Visiting
The church is on Piazza San Fedele, between the Duomo and La Scala, two minutes from both, Duomo or Cordusio metro; free entry with long hours. A quarter of an hour. In the Jesuit house next door is the Museo San Fedele, with contemporary art on sacred themes, with its own ticket and hours. On the square, the monument to Manzoni.
Our editors' tip
Look at the confessionals one by one, walking along the walls: each door has a carved scene, and set in a row they tell the Old and New Testaments to whoever was waiting their turn. Then go out and look at the steps: they are the ones Manzoni fell on, and the statue they put in front of him faces the other way.