Santa Maria alla Fontana
Santa Maria alla Fontana stands in Milan’s Isola district, presenting a square chapel beneath a richly frescoed vaulted ceiling. Its Renaissance design belongs to Giovanni Antonio Amadeo. Frescoes from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries cover the interior, including works linked to Bernardino Luini’s school. At the centre, a sacellum echoes a Roman steam room. Its twelve-sectioned vault depicts the Twelve Apostles in a compact architectural focal point.
In 1507, Charles II of Amboise commissioned the building after the fountain’s water reportedly healed him. A contract from 1508 identifies Amadeo as architect. Healing claims once focused on joint ailments, until a nineteenth-century factory fire contaminated the source and closed it. Water from Milan’s aqueduct supplies the fountain.
Griffini and Mezzanotte redesigned the upper church in 1922, while peaceful cloisters preserve the complex’s quieter character. The fountain stands within the walls, beside the Renaissance spaces that surround it.
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