Chiesa di Santa Maria Incoronata

This church is a particular case of "double church", similar to the one of S. Cristoforo al Naviglio (also in Milan): looking from the churchyard, the church on the left is the oldest, because it already existed in the communal age, it was ruled by the hermit fathers of S. Marco and was dedicated to S. Maria di Garegnano.
Next to the church, at the beginning of the 15th century, a convent was built for the Augustinian fathers, who restored the ancient church in the late Gothic style, typical of that century. Since the work was completed on the occasion of the coronation of Francesco Sforza as Duke of Milan (1451), they named it after Santa Maria Incoronata, dedicating it to the new lord of the city.
In 1460 his wife, Bianca Maria Visconti, a lady of Cremona, wanted a second one to be built next to the consort's church, completely identical and connected to it so as to form a single new church: with this work Bianca Maria wanted to publicly seal her fidelity to her husband. She thus succeeded in making it one of the most original buildings of the time.
In the turbulent centuries that followed, the Incoronata became a warehouse, then a lazaret, then a barracks and also a prison, an agricultural school, finally returning to being a place of worship and a parish church.