Chiesa di Santa Maria del Podone

In Piazza Borromeo, in the historic centre of Milan, stands the Chiesa di Santa Maria del Podone. It is one of Milan's oldest churches, founded in the ninth century and consecrated in 871. Vuerolfo Podone, a Milanese nobleman, gave the land, and the church took his name. Today it serves as a Greek Orthodox church.

The Borromeo family, a prominent Milanese dynasty, added a chapel in 1440. Pellegrino Tibaldi crafted the bell tower in the sixteenth century. The baroque facade, finished by Fabio Mangone between 1628 and 1634, shows Corinthian pilasters and a portico on marble columns. Above the entrance you can make out the Borromeo crest, a sign of the family's enduring influence. Inside, the original plan had three naves, each ending in a semicircular apse. Restorations have left the baroque character of the interior intact. The right nave holds the Chapel of the Holy Family behind gothic windows. On the left stands the Chapel of the Crucifix.

Music comes from an organ that the firm Balbiani-Vegezzi-Bossi built in the post-war years. A smaller chapel, added in 1859, is dedicated to the Madonna del Parto and adorned with a fresco by Michelino da Besozzo.