The shrine of Santa Maria di Piazza, also known as the shrine of the Beata Vergine dell'Aiuto (Blessed Virgin of Help), stands in the historic centre of Busto Arsizio, where an earlier church dedicated to the Madonna once stood, itself the successor of a chapel from the time of the Christianisation. It was built quickly, between 1515 and 1522.
What to see
Two names appear in the documents on the construction: Antonio da Lonate, author of the model for Vigevano cathedral, and a «magistro Tomaxio ingeniero», probably Tommaso Rodari, the sculptor and architect active at Como cathedral. The first is credited with the central plan, for which a Bramantesque design has been suggested; the second with the two portals to the west and south and perhaps the elegant loggia in the drum under the dome, reminiscent of the tiburio of the shrine at Saronno. Inside, the lower part is square, with diagonal arches in the corners forming niches; above runs the octagonal drum with its crown of niches for the twelve saints. Outside, a rigorous cubic volume articulated by pilasters carries a tiburio with pinnacles and a lantern.
The dome was frescoed in 1531 by Giovanni Crespi, grandfather of Giovan Battista Crespi, known as il Cerano, with dozens of gilded stars in the segments; on the lower band of the tiburio are painted prophets and sibyls, sixteen male figures and as many female ones in all, among them Moses, Aaron, David, Solomon, Jonah, Eve, Rachel, Esther and Judith. The frescoes of the presbytery, from 1542, are by Giovan Battista della Cerva, a pupil of Gaudenzio Ferrari: the Annunciation on the pillars, the Adoration of the Magi and the Adoration of the Shepherds on the walls. The Last Supper, on the altar to the right of the high altar, is by Gaudenzio Ferrari and della Cerva himself.
Visiting
The shrine is in the historic centre of Busto Arsizio; opening hours and visiting arrangements do not appear in the sources consulted, so they should be checked with the parish. On the east façade the first stone, laid in 1517, is still set into the wall; at the top of the presbytery survives the stone roundel with the Madonna and Child, the only remnant of the Romanesque church that stood here before.
Our editors' tip
A curiosity to take away: at Crespi d'Adda, a UNESCO site, stands an exact but smaller copy of this shrine, and in Montevideo, in the church of the working-class Cerro district, an exact copy of the statue of the Madonna.
