San Carlo al Corso in Milan is a Neoclassical church, with the Pantheon in Rome as its obvious model. The municipality wanted a straight boulevard linking the Duomo to Piazza San Babila. Older structures, including a Servite monastery founded around 1290, were razed to build a larger church honoring Archbishop Charles Borromeo.
Groundbreaking was in 1832, the cloister was demolished from 1838 and the facade was designed in 1844. The church was consecrated in 1847. Carlo Amati designed the facade, the colonnade and the portico, and Filippo Pizzagalli is also listed as an architect.
The church was built in thanks for the end of a cholera epidemic, and construction relied on donations. Angelo Inganni painted the apse ceiling fresco, the Glory of San Carlo. It is an active church in the Ambrosian Rite.
Comments