Institutional portal - Municipality of Milan

Cascina Sant'Ambrogio is of particular interest from a historical and artistic point of view.

The first information attributes the settlement to the nuns of the Monastery of Santa Radegonda, who fled here in 1162 AD. following Barbarossa's raids. This Benedictine monastery was among the first female monasteries in Milan and is depicted in important documents such as the map of the Pieve di Segrate and in the subsequent map by Giovanni Battista Claricio, entitled "Map of the surroundings of Milan for the radius of 5 miles of Milanese arms" .

A church was built in the 14th century. In the 18th century Teresian Land Registry the complex is still represented as a small religious building. The demolition and subsequent reconstruction that gave it its current shape date back to the second half of the nineteenth century. Since then the typical features of the rural center of Milan have been visible: a long habitable building, with pilasters and terracotta arches, which ends with the hemicycle of the apse, divided by small pillars in relief and crowned by a frame with arches. A second building with storage and living functions is inserted onto the main body. Two other cottages house the stable with the barn and a second warehouse.

Over the course of the last century the farmhouse continued its agricultural function and also became a residence for numerous families. In 1962 the property passed from the Pio Istituto “Figli della Provvidenza” to the Municipality of Milan, which in 2014 granted it with a thirty-year contract to encourage its recovery, valorisation and use by the public.

Of the ancient architecture, the transformation that took place in the 800th century spared only the apse. However, between the 900th and XNUMXth centuries, the surviving part was also used for production purposes: used as an ice house, the frescoes that adorned it were irremediably damaged. Today a project for their recovery is underway.

The aforementioned very detailed map by Giovanni Battista Claricio made it possible to identify all the farmhouses within a radius of seven kilometers from the Spanish walls.