Cripta di San Giovanni in Conca — Attraction in Milan

San Giovanni in Conca: the church and the crypt

In the traffic island between Via Albricci and the beginning of Piazza Missori a Roman apse rises, or at least what remains of it. Here, years ago, stood one of the oldest and most important basilicas in Milan: San Giovanni in Conca. Today only the remains of the apse remain, and below the road, the crypt, visible to a few but almost completely intact, one of the most precious examples of the Milanese Romanesque Crypt. In the 5th-6th century the basilica of San Giovanni in Conca was built, about 53 x 7 meters long with a semicircular apse, still partly visible, and a bell tower of about 24 meters. It was destroyed several times, even by Barbarossa in 1162, to then always be rebuilt. The church conquered the Visconti, who incorporated it into the enclosure of their stately home. At their death, Bernabò Visconti and his wife Regina della Scala found themselves in real funeral monuments. Later it was donated to the Carmelites, until it was deconsecrated by the Austrians and closed by the French, who used it as a hardware and wagon warehouse. Finally it was first shortened and then, between 1948 and 1952 after the Second World War, destroyed for "essential requirements of viability". The façade of the church was almost entirely reconstructed in the Waldensian basilica of Via...

Luogo semisconosciuto (ai milanesi, io compreso) della Milano romana tardo imperiale (IV secolo D. C.) È la cripta di una chiesa con vicissitudini pressoché millenarie, dall'alto medioevo sino alla sua demolizione del 1949/51per far posto alla nuova piazza Missori e alla via Albricci, lasciando i resti dell'abside e la cripta sottostante che tutti i milanesi nati nell'immediato dopoguerra hanno sempre visto. Molto ben rappresentata, all'interno della cripta, la sua storicita' con l'ausilio di pannelli e di un video che illustra la storia della chiesa e la storia della Milano capitale dell'impero romano d'Occidente, in un pannello vi è rappresentata in una planivolumetria ("a volo d'uccello" ) la Milano romana del IV secolo con le mura di Massimiano, pressoché unico riferimento (oltre al plastico del museo archeologico) della Milano romana!! La mia conoscenza di questo sito è dovuta al fatto che sono volontario del T. C. I. di Apertipervoi, e che sovente sono di turno a S....

This hidden gem is free entrance but you can book guided tour for only 10euro via Aster www.spazioaster.it. The guide was unbelievable prepared giving us some many details even off topic and suggesting huge amount of other monuments that can be visited. Not sure the tour is available in other languages than Italian, so...