Milan – Surroundings of Santa Maria delle Grazie
Besides the wonderful for a walk or picnic Parco Sempione, the area around Castello Sforzesco has no more attractions. So it's better, crossing the busy streets of the fmansjery district bounded by Corso Magenta, head south. On the way you can stop at the former Monastero Maggiore, Corso Magenta 15, Museo Archeologico (Wed-Mon. 9.30-12.20 and 14.30-17.20). Glass vials attract attention here, kitchen utensils and jewelry from Roman times, and among the few larger items, Jupiter's giant head found near the castle, Hercules' torso and fragments of mosaic floors unearthed in various parts of the city.
A real magnet, attracting tourists to this district, however there is the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, famous for the mural painting The Last Supper made by Leonardo da Vinci. Initially built in the Gothic style, designed by a 15th-century architect named Solari, at the will of Lodovic Sforza, the church was partially rebuilt by a more "modern one” Bramantego. He demolished the former chancel and replaced it with a huge dome, which is supported by a spacious Renaissance cubic structure. Lodovico also intended to modernize the nave and façade, but because he did not have time to do so before the capture of Milan by the French, the church remained an original combination of styles. Decorated with shades of blue, Today Solari's gothic vaults are illuminated with red and ocher by the rays of the sun streaming through the windows of Bramante's dome. The side exit from the church leads to the calm and balanced cloisters of Bramante, which (and even better from the outside) you can see a sixteen-sided drum placed by the architect around the dome.
Leonardo's Last Supper, which covers the entire wall of the church's refectory (codz. 9.00-13.15 and 14.00-18.15, Nd. and holidays only in the morning; 4000L) is one of the greatest and loudest paintings in the world. Henry James compared him to "the famous invalid”, one visits by tiptoeing around him, like around a dying person, and when he says goodbye he sighs heavily”. Actually, looking at the wall of the refectory destroyed, a faded painting, partially obscured by the conservators' scaffolding, it's hard not to get the impression, that they are being watched for the last time. It is already a miracle, that the work has survived at all. Because Leonardo decided to use oil paint for painting, and not more often used, faster drying and more durable fresco technique, five years after graduation, the painting began to fade away. Two hundred years later, Napoleon's soldiers quartered here used this wall as a shooting range, and in the year 1943 a bomb destroyed the building and miraculously the wall with the Last Supper has just been preserved. The necessary restoration works carried out over the centuries did not leave much of Leonardo's original colors., but current conservators remove the effects of the work of their predecessors and protect the wall from moisture, which will last until the early nineties.
Despite the above shortcomings, the painting remains a masterpiece. Leonardo spent two years searching the streets of Milan for models of individual characters. On the complaints of monks, that the face of Judas is still unfinished, the painter was about to answer, that he has been looking for a face among the city's criminal world for over a year, which would be bad enough and that if it doesn't find anything, he will be forced to use the face of their prior. Sources did not tell us, whose face finally became the painter's model, but it is a fact, that the face of Judas , in the words of Vasari, he is "the epitome of betrayal and the lack of human affection”.
Położone or kilka ulic dalej National Museum of Science and Technology (Tue-Sun. 9.00-17.00; 4000L) is dedicated to Leonard. It is inspired by his inventions, of which what's more eccentric, including the famous flying machine, are reconstructed here. General sections, devoted to physics, astronomy, telecommunications and musical instruments, they are less interesting and rather incomprehensible to the layman. The museum also has a collection of former steam trains and airplanes, and even an ocean liner.
The nearby Church of Sant'Ambrogio was founded in the 4th century by this patron of Milan. Even today, the name of Ambrose is important to the inhabitants of the city, who claiming to be Ambrosiani, they named after the saint a large banking network, and the patronal feast of St.. Ambrose (7 XII) they celebrate by opening the opera season and organizing a big fair around the church. The saint's remains are still in this church, though after the former temple, in which the most famous pagan convert by him, Saint Augustine, he heard his sermon for the first time, there is no trace left today.
Current, a model church for many Romanesque basilicas in Lombardy, is one of the most beautiful in the city. It is accessed by a rectangular courtyard surrounded by a colonnade, where the capitals of the columns depict kicking horses, oddly distorted dragons and various other mysterious predators. Inside, near the entrance, between the nave and the left nave, there is a free-standing Byzantine column, on which the "magic."” bronze serpent, symbolizing Aaron's wand. According to an ancient tradition, on Judgment Day the serpent will crawl back into the valley of Jehoshaphat. It is also worth paying attention to the masterfully carved Romanesque pulpit. The bas-reliefs decorating it depict animals devouring each other, as well as several human figures. Next, in the back of the church, there is an even older architectural element, ciborium decorated with figures of St.. Gervase and Protase. The saints themselves, converted Roman soldiers, who gave their lives for the faith, they lie in beautiful costumes in a crypt next to St.. Ambrose. An autopsy carried out in the 19th century revealed, that they had been killed by slitting their throats. Similar research, to whom the remains of St.. Ambrose, restored the good name of the anonymous creator of the mosaic portrait of the saint (At the age) z Chapel of San Vittorio in Ciel d’Oro (the chapel on the right from the sacristy). It was previously assumed, that the curvature of Ambrose's face was due to the artist's error, meanwhile, an analysis of the skull showed, that the face was indeed a bit deformed due to one of the teeth embedded too deeply.
From the left nave you can see the not finished by Bramante Cortilc della Canonica. This cloister page, which Bramante managed to finish, containing innovative, columns resembling tree trunks and a triumphal arch, was bombed during the last war and is now reconstructed from the surviving fragments. The second, built only in a year 1955, a series of arcades leads to a small museum, whose only exhibit of historical significance is the bed of St. Ambrose.