Ambrose and Mussolini

They say the dictator made the trains run on time. I don’t know about that, but he sure made a giant station in Milan. On the edge of monstrous. Going in from the piazza, you first cross a vast porte-couchère, that must be at least 100 feet high. Now it is closed to traffic, and used for various other things, like the Christmas market. Then you are in the atrium, with endless staircases going up to the First floor. Fortunately, if you go around them, you find elevators and moving ramps to take you to the newer mezzanine and then the first Floor. Anyway, it goes on and on – it is now really a big shopping mall. I think it was supposed to look like the Baths of Caracalla or something. Anyway, there are Fascist emblems everywhere – eagles and SPQR legends, and dangerous-looking lions – but not the fasces themselves.

Note size of people next to the door of the porte-couchère on the right

Anyway, I found my hotel only a short walk away, and the next morning I found a cab to take me to the Basilica San Ambrosio.  St. Ambrose of Milan was the teacher of St. Augustine at the end of the 4^th C. He was probably the most influential churchman of his time, since Milan was more important than Rome (as it is today, in many ways).  He is enshrined in a magnificent Carolingian basilica.


  

           

You enter through a large atrium into a shadowy and dramatic Romanesque interior.

At the end is a 9^th C altar clad in golden panels . 

    

To the side, in the treasury, there are remnants of 5th C. mosaics,

 and some floor-mosaics from the 4th. Ambrose himself can be found under the high altar, by stepping down five steps into the crypt. There he is, vested as an archbishop, in mitre and pallium, bearded face intact and visible. With him are two 3^rd C. martyrs (who therefore have crowns), Gervase and Protase. Many find this kind of thing macabre or amusing. (The guys next to me laughed: I glared at them until they stopped.) I found the visit moving.

There in front of me were the earthly remains of the great Doctor of the Church, who suggested that original sin.was the notion of private property. 

I remember from my architecture-as-art class fifty years ago that the Allies priority list for things to avoid bombing put the basilica on a higher level than the Cathedral. That was correct, I think.

My driver for this excursion spent some time in the US. He is a string-musician. He recorded with Preston Reed. He is an expert in ‘50s American swing (Les Paul) and we talked about guitars. I8 remember that the last time I* visited Milan, 33 years ago, Eric Monrad was with me. He now makes guitars, and we talked about that. Stephan also turned me on to Funk Off – a British jazz marching-band that is worth googling and listening to.