Museo della basilica di Sant'Eustorgio

Museo della Basilica di Sant’Eustorgio stands in Milan, within the cloisters of the ancient Basilica di Sant’Eustorgio. You see arcades, stonework, and rooms shaped by centuries of religious history.

The museum preserves archaeological remains from a paleochristian necropolis discovered during excavations in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Tombstones, marble slabs, a bishop’s coat of arms, and reliquaries occupy the cloister portico. The old chapter house displays statues, including a figure of Saint Eugene, while the sacristy holds votive offerings and liturgical objects from the fourteenth to seventeenth centuries.

Two Gothic side chapels add paintings and sculpture beyond the archaeological remains. The Saint Francis Chapel contains an anonymous fresco of Jesus appearing to Saint Dominic, while the Saint Paul Chapel holds a lacquered Madonna and Daniele Crespi’s effigy of Saint Paul. The Portinari Chapel provides the defining view, with Lombard Renaissance architecture commissioned by Pigello Portinari.