San Sebastiano
Continuing along via Torino from piazza Duomo after the intersection with via della Palla on the right stands an impressive, stately, cylindrical construction giving straight onto the street. The then Cardinal of Milan, renowned Saint Carlo Borromeo, formulated the idea of building a new Church during a plague epidemic in 1576 as a votive promise for the salvation of the city. The Archbishop entrusted the project to Pellegrino Tibaldi, an architect he knew and relied upon, who designed a circular temple partly inspired by the Pantheon in Rome. During the Renaissance period most of the edifices planned on the basis of a circular design imitated or were inspired by models from ancient times. The Church was dedicated to Saint Sebastian a martyr whose wounds, inflicted by arrows, were by association reminiscent of the sores procured by the plague. He was considered a protector against this terrible disease. The temple was built over a chapel dedicated to Saint Quilino already existing in the XIV century.Tibaldi's project was only followed faithfully as far as the lower part of the Church was concerned, while Fabio Mangone modified the upper part of the edifice in 1617 raising the height of the building and extending the principal chapel where the main altar was placed. On the outside San Sebastiano appears as a cylindrical body divided by a cornice ringed by a balcony in two parts. The lower part is distinguished by a blind arcade consisting of a series of eight arches around the circular façade while above the receding upper part has a double series of windows and niches. The interior consists of a generous circular space and the recesses planned by Tibaldi were used to place four side altars. The first chapel on the right is dedicated to Saint Eligio patron of goldsmiths. The panel behind the altar is by Andrea Lanzani(1759). The second chapel has an Annunciazione (Annunciation) and in the lunette the Strage degli innocenti (The Slaughter of the Innocents) by Giuseppe Danedi known as Montalto(1619-1689). Entering the Church the chapel of the Pietà on the left can be seen with a sculpture in Carrara marble by Benedetto Cacciari(1887) and a painting by Filippo Abbiati(1640-1715). Another two paintings by Abbiati can be admired in the next chapel dedicated to San Sebastiano. In the altar area is a copy of the martyrdom of San Sebastiano by Vincenzo Foppa; the original is conserved in the "Civici Musei del Castello", the museum at Castello Sforzesco". The main altar designed by Giuseppe Merlo(1759) is in precious marble and on its left side is a panel depicting the Presentation at the Temple said to be by Barocci in walnut and briar. At the far end of the presbytery are other paintings including san Carlo among the plague victims and the Estasi di San Filippo Neri (early decades of the eighteenth-century). In 1833 the artist Agostino Comerio frescoed the dome with Mistero della Risurrezione and also decorated the tambour around the dome with portraits of the Doctors of the Church San Gregorio, Sant'Ambrogio, San Gerolamo and Sant'Agostino. Saint Sebastian is also the Patron Saint of Milan's Vigili Urbani (local traffic policemen) who honour him in this temple. The goldsmiths venerate their Patron Sant'Eligio here while cobblers show devotion to San Crispino and Crispiano. Many armed forces sports and cultural associations and groups representing prison camp survivors gather in San Sebastiano to commemorate their dead.
