The church of Santa Maria in Strada stands in the historic centre of Monza, on via Italia, and has one of the finest façades of Lombard Gothic, with a false loggia and terracotta ornaments.
What to see
It stands on an ancient convent of the Franciscan friars known as «della Penitenza», who allowed the building to be converted into an oratory in 1348; the name comes from the fact that the church stood on the main road leading from Monza to Milan, called simply the «Strada». The friars built a new church on the site of an old ruined oratory, completed in 1357 to a design by the Milanese architect Ambrosolius (another source dates the start of the works to 1357); about ten years later the convent was built, whose fine cloister can still be admired. In 1393 the complex was given to the Augustinians of the convent of San Marco in Milan, and in 1421 the church was enlarged with the choir, the sacristy and the bell tower.
In 1610, by order of Archbishop Borromeo, the barrel vault was built, closing the slender single-light windows and the choir windows; in 1756 the architect Giovanni Battista Riccardi coordinated a radical intervention that brought a cornice at the base of the vault, stucco pilasters, the rebuilding of the high altar in marble and gilded bronze and the opening of the chapels. In 1798 the Napoleonic government suppressed the convent and the church, closed, was soon reopened under popular pressure; in 1870 the architect Carlo Maciachini restored the façade which, inspired both by examples of Giovanni di Balduccio and by Matteo da Campione's nearby façade for the cathedral, is gabled and made of brick, with four orders marked by string courses, a portal with a terracotta arch and a rose window with concentric decorations between two pointed-arch two-light windows. Inside, the high altar of 1756, in marble, hardstones and bronzes, holds the statue of the Madonna della cintola, dear to the Augustinians; the frescoes of the presbytery and choir are by Giambattista Gariboldi, with an Assumption of the Virgin and a Glory of Saint Augustine, and in a passage under the bell chamber is preserved a large late 14th-century fresco of the Crucifixion by an unknown artist.
Visiting
The church stands on via Italia, in the historic centre of Monza, with a small cloister attached; hours and visits should be checked with the parish.
Our editors' tip
Look at the façade up close: above the portal the band of false aedicules keeps traces of 14th-century frescoes, and the terracotta decorations grow richer with each band as you look up.
