Institutional portal - Municipality of Milan

Surrounded by rice fields, the eighteenth-century Cascina San Marchetto has the typical closed courtyard structure: mainly Friesian cattle are raised there for the production of milk. All around, where in the past there were fountains and waterways, a lake environment survives which gives life to an interesting naturalistic micro-oasis.

San Marchetto, like the San Marco al Bosco and San Marcaccio farms (the first still functioning), are located around the small country church of San Marchetto, from which they take their name. It is a small devotional church born, according to legend, on the site where a wooden crucifix, still preserved here, was found. It stands on a hill that corresponds to the original countryside plan: the surrounding cultivated land is at a lower level due to the systematic removal of clayey material destined for a nearby kiln for the production of bricks.

The date of the construction of the church of San Marchetto is not known but its existence is documented already around 1280-90 because it is mentioned in the "Liber notitiae sanctorum mediolani", catalog of places of worship in the diocese, presumably compiled by the chronicler Goffredo da Bussero .

A Papal Bull of Pope Pius VII grants plenary indulgence to those who venerate the crucifix preserved in the church of San Marchetto in the month of September, on the occasion of the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross which is celebrated on 14 September.