BASILICA OF SANT'EUSTORGIO, Portinari Chapel

The Portinari Chapel is a jewel of fifteenth-century Milanese art. It's named after Pigello Portinari, who had the chapel built and is buried inside. Portinari was the Milan branch manager of a major Florentine bank, Banco Mediceo. It is no coincidence, then, that the chapel offers a lovely balance between geometric Tuscan simplicity and decorative Lombard taste.

The tour begins with the first cloister, which dates back to when the basilica was the site of a Dominican convent. The remains of the second cloister and other rooms can be admired in the rich collections of the Diocesan Museum. If you go along the corridor after the ticket office and down a small flight of stairs, you can see the remains of an ancient cemetery with tombs and graves of the Romans and first Christians of Mediolanum, the ancient name of Milan.

Now pause the audio and go into the monumental sacristy.

You are in the monumental sacristy: as you can see, these large walnut cabinets keep sacred furnishings, containers of relics, and other objects including sacred vestments that Saint Carlo Borromeo wore when he made his solemn entrance in Milan as an archbishop.

Now pause the audio and go to the Portinari Chapel....