What to See in Seregno: Attractions & Sights

More places of interest

Basilica di San Giuseppe

The collegiate basilica of San Giuseppe is Seregno's main church. It arose from a decision by the Austrian government in Milan and Cardinal Giuseppe Pozzobonelli, who in the second half of the eighteenth century chose to replace the two old parishes, San Vittore and Sant'Ambrogio, with a single church: the rival confraternities, the «reds» of San Vittore and the «whites» of Sant'Ambrogio, often quarrelled, and the new church, built halfway between the two, was to be the sign of unity regained. The dedication to Saint Joseph, the archbishop's patron, was a new cult for the town.
What to see
The foundation stone was laid on 27 August 1769. The first design, by the Barnabite Ermenegildo Pini, planned a large round church for 3600 worshippers, but it was dropped in 1771 for lack of funds; with Giulio Galliori's scaled-down design the church was inaugurated on 6 May 1781. In 1786 a gilt bronze ciborium set with precious stones, from the suppressed Milanese church of Santa Caterina di Brera, was placed on the high altar. The monumental façade, designed by Ottavio Cabiati, was inaugurated in 1944, with a mosaic in the pediment designed by Salvatore Saponaro; later the architect Luigi Brambilla replaced the pitched roof with a dome on a tall drum, and the building reached a height of 38 metres.
On the right as you enter is the tomb of Patriarch Paolo Angelo Ballerini, who lived here from 1868 until his death in 1897, with a marble monument by Francesco Confalonieri. The bronze Dead Christ by Alberto Ceppi dates from 1977; the altar in the middle of the church, by Floriano Bodini, was consecrated in 1999 by Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini.
Visiting
A collegiate church since 1925, it became a minor basilica in May 1981, on its bicentenary. Cardinal Karol Wojtyła had visited it three times as archbishop of Kraków; as pope he gave a painting of Our Lady of Częstochowa and returned on 21 May 1983, a visit recalled by his bronze statue in front of the church. Mass and visiting times should be checked with the parish.
Our editors' tip
The basilica's main bells are not in the small bell tower behind the apse but in the nearby Torre del Barbarossa; the five bells of the small bell tower ring at noon and for baptisms on feast days.
Torre Civica

The Torre del Barbarossa is Seregno's civic tower, a bell tower of medieval origin in the old town, regarded as the symbol of the town. The name comes from a tradition that Emperor Frederick Barbarossa had it built as a lookout on the line between Como and Milan during the wars against the Lombard communes. The most widely accepted view, with more evidence behind it, is instead that it was the bell tower of the old church of San Vittore, later largely demolished; another theory holds that it belonged to a local castle.
What to see
The tower is in the Guelph style, rare in the architecture of its time. It was originally taller: it was lowered when it was turned into a bell tower, partly because the bells went from the four of San Vittore to the present nine and problems of stability had to be avoided. Today it holds the bells of the basilica of San Giuseppe. The nine bells, cast by the Ottolina foundry, were consecrated in 1930; the largest, called the «Campanone», cracked in 1987 and was recast identically in 1988 thanks to donations from local people.
According to the tradition of the «Campanone di Brianza», in the Middle Ages the main towers of the area passed on the alarm by ringing in a chain: from Vimercate to Montevecchia, Erba, Montorfano, Cantù, Mariano Comense, then Seregno, Desio and Vedano al Lambro, and back to Vimercate.
Visiting
The tower belongs to the town council, which has restored it since 1990; the bells were put back in July 1997 and in September Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini inaugurated the tower by starting the peal. Any visits should be checked with the town council.
Our editors' tip
The bells are Ambrosian, with a falling clapper: for the solemn peal they are raised mouth upwards and held by a brake; when the brake is released they swing down and sound two strokes, one on the way down and one on the way back up.