Abstract
From the date of its construction the chapel of the Blessed Virgin of Miracles is an important reference for the devotional Milanese population. It is so significant that the funding for its construction are raised thanks to the offerings of the faithful people visiting the church of S. Maria alla Porta, attached to which the chapel was built in 1705 to preserve the image of a Madonna and Child found—by chance—in the same church during some maintenance works carried out in 1651. During the XVIII and XIX centuries the chapel and the painting acquire an increasing importance and affection that will continue to grow until the tragic events of the World War II and, in particular, the bombings of 1943, which destroyed the chapel, saving only the wall adjacent to the church even if severely disfigured. The project of conservation and reuse aims to give back the building and its values to the city, valorizing the two crucial aspects that have characterized, and still characterize, the chapel. The one linked to the devotion to the Virgin and the other connected to the memory of the wounds caused by the war. Despite the small size of the ruins, the approach to the conservation project has been set on a strong multidisciplinary approach which allowed to reach excellent results in terms of knowledge of the status quo of the remains from both morphological/material and historical/documentary points of view.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
With the collaboration of Arch. Ilaria Lelii.
- 2.
Parish Archives of Santa Maria alla Porta: Disegni, C5; Fondo Fabbriceria, Cartella 43/4 fascicolo 3–4, Cartella 43/8 fascicolo 2-4-5-6, Cartella 53/1fascicolo 1, Cartella 53/2, fascicolo 2; Fondo Parrocchia, Cartella 53/3, fascicolo 3. Were also investigated the Fondo Catasto 3563 e 518 in the State Archive of Milan and the Fondo Chiese at the City Photographic Archive in the Sforzesco Castel.
- 3.
“Portale Cartografico del Comune di Milano”—www.comune.milano.it/sit2006/sit2006/ot/home/homesit.asp.
- 4.
When, in 1651, began the restoration of the Church operated by Francesco Maria Richini, a mason removing the old plasters discovered “a picture of Our Lady with the Holy Child in her womb, tempera painted over a semicircular small door, he was already in the act of throwing the hammer onto the sacred effigy, when a person passing by advised him to desist, finding that face very beautiful and devout. The mason wiped the dust with his apron and discovered the loveliness of the Image, taken from instant horror, held the shot, and reverently worshiped the image. Indeed there are some proven memories asserting that being the mason lame since long time, driven by devotion exclaimed: “Blessed Virgin straight me up”, and that was enough, because he instantly felt his legs firmer and stepped down from the scaffolding with the grace perfectly obtained”. A portion of the apron of the mason was preserved in a small pouch inside the glass that protects the image and venerated by the faithful. The original description of the story can be found in the Parish Archives (Fabbriceria, cart. 43/4 fasc. 4).
- 5.
The instrument used was the laser scanner Topcon GLS 1000, for data elaboration it has been used the Topcon Scanmaster software and the Trimble Realworks software. Scanning was performed by Diego Vanotti.
- 6.
ICP—Iterative Closest Point is an algorithm employed to minimize the difference between two points clouds during the registration phase.
- 7.
The instrument used was the laser scanner Faro Focus 3D, data were processed with the Faro Scene software.
- 8.
Annalisa Belloni, restorer (for Teknelitos Restauro e conservazione S.r.l).
- 9.
Prof. Luigi Soroldoni (Consulting and diagnostic investigations for the restoration and conservation of works of art—Castano Primo).
- 10.
NORMAL 13/83.
- 11.
NORMAL 40/93, 41/93 o UNI 11085:2003.
References
Aa. Vv. Marrucci, R. A. (a cura di). (2004). Bombe sulla città: Milano in guerra 1942–1944. Milano: Skira.
Cassi Ramelli, A. (1971). Il centro di Milano: dal Duomo alla cerchia dei navigli: documenti, note e divagazioni. Milan: Ceschina Milano.
Fiorio, M. T. (1985). Le chiese di Milano. Milan: Credito Artigiano Milano.
Gambi, L., & Gozzoli M. C. (2003). Milano. Milan: Editori Laterza Bari.
Latuada, S. (1737). Descrizione di Milano, ornata con molti disegni in rame delle Fabbriche più cospicue, che si trovano in questa metropoli. Milan: Giovanni Cairoli Milano.
Mezzanotte, P., & Bascape’, G. C. (1948). Milano nell’arte e nella storia. Carlo Bestetti Edizioni d’Arte Milano.
Pellegrino, B. (1991). Così era Milano. Porta Vercellina. Scorci e memorie di antiche contrade, Libreria Milanese Milano.
Ponzoni, C. (1930). Le chiese di Milano. Milan: Arti Grafiche Milanesi Milano.
Reina, P. (1966). Santa Maria alla Porta dalle origini ai nostri giorni, Milano.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Ciocchini, E., Maiocchi, A., Zangheri, F. (2015). The Chapel of the Blessed Virgin of Miracles: A Multidisciplinary Approach for the Project of Conservation and Reuse. In: Toniolo, L., Boriani, M., Guidi, G. (eds) Built Heritage: Monitoring Conservation Management. Research for Development. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08533-3_17
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08533-3_17
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-08532-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-08533-3
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)