Abbazia di Mirasole
Tel: 02 8723955
Opening hours
The abbacy is usually open for prayers.
Completely accessible to the disabled.
History
Founded during the first half of the 1200's, the Mirasole complex is among the most artistically and culturally interesting sites within the territory of Milan. The complex, which is quadrangular in shape, is one of the best preserved examples of a medieval farmhouse courtyard, the style of which will be an inspiration for the structure of the Lombard farmstead of the modern age. The buildings were surrounded by a ditch and defended by a tower originally fitted with a draw-bridge, two entrances, one from the city, the other one from the fields, led into the courtyard surrounded by stables, houses and workshops for working wool. Alongside the courtyard there is the cloister, onto which the refectory, the kitchens, the capitular room and the sacristy look, it is porticoed on four sides on the ground floor, on two sides on the first floor it has a loggia which acted as a dormitory and granary. Like the cloister, the church is also dedicated to St. Mary, it dates back to the period between the end of the 14th and the beginning of the 15th century. The interior is covered with wooden lacunars and the choir houses a fresco depicting the Assumption of Mary, the work of an anonymous artist working around 1460, but still owing a lot to the manners of Michelino da Besozzo.
Since 1797, Mirasole has been part of Milan's Ospedale Maggiore (hospital).
Notes
The abbey's emblem, the sun sided by the moon, was adopted by Province of Milan, now replaced by Città metropolitana, as a main part of his ars.
