Chiesa parrocchiale di Santa Marcellina e San Giuseppe alla Certosa

Chiesa parrocchiale di Santa Marcellina e San Giuseppe alla Certosa stands in Milan’s northwestern Varesina district, surrounded by a spacious garden and moat. Its brick exterior gives the church an isolated yet welcoming presence.

Mario Tedeschi designed the church as part of Milan’s post-war programme for new parish buildings. Archbishop Giovanni Battista Montini supported that programme during his tenure in Milan. Carlo Ramous shaped the monumental cement façade with a Crucifixion, the four Evangelists and biblical scenes. The parish church was inaugurated in 1958, while its stained-glass windows were completed later.

Inside, a slightly irregular Latin-cross plan creates a single nave with transepts and brick surfaces. Poli Arte windows combine biblical and natural themes across the nave and sanctuary. Franco Bonazza’s mosaics trace the Stations of the Cross through the nave and left transept. The right transept holds Tedeschi’s baptismal font beside mosaics of Jesus’ baptism, while the left contains Santa Marcellina’s altar and a Nativity mosaic. A bronze tabernacle from the Scuola Beato Angelico adds a final gleam among the wooden sculptures.