Chiesa di Santa Maria Segreta

The Chiesa di Santa Maria Segreta stands on Via Mascheroni in central Milan, overlooking Piazza Tommaseo in Municipio Uno. This Catholic church presents a neobaroque facade, with two low, square bell towers framing its central section. Four statues and a marble bas-relief of the Madonna and Child give you details to study before entering.

The site reaches back to a small Roman shrine dedicated to Demeter, followed later by a Christian church. Saint Ambrose ordered churches over pagan temples, and the first church here dated from 836. It received a baroque remodelling in the seventeenth century, but demolition followed in 1911 for the Palazzo delle Poste. Augusto Brusconi designed the replacement, built from 1912 to 1918 and drawing on the demolished church.

Inside, one vaulted nave runs between three chapels on each side, while the transept and three apses form a cross. Two pulpits by Luigi Canonica and a fifteenth-century Neapolitan painting of the Coronation of the Virgin furnish the interior. The right-hand tower holds five bells made by Ottolina, while the facade recalls Sant’Alessandro in Zebedia.