Chiesa di San Bartolomeo

The story of St Bartholomew’s Church is connected to the previous church located where via Manzoni and via Fatebenefratelli meet. After its demolition in 1861 for town planning reasons, the new church was erected at the start of via della Moscova, under the auspices of Maurizio Garavaglia. As in the original, the current place of worship appears naked of works of art, and in this mainly sober space Adrian Paci has displayed his photographic Via Crucis (Way of the Cross).

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Basilica di San Marco

Among the most important basilicas in the city, St Mark’s is precious not only artistically but also musically (Mozart visited

it on his journey to Italy,

and it was here that Verdi’s Requiem was premièred).

In the heart of the Brera district, it is immediately imposing because of its size (96 m long), and displays

a neo-gothic façade, the result of the 19th-century restoration by Carlo Maciachini. Inside, however, it is home to works of varying origins, including some by Camillo Procaccini, Paolo Lomazzo and Francesco Londonio, whose tomb permanently occupies an entire chapel

in the right side-aisle. Alongside the sarcophagi and bas reliefs in the oldest part of the building, the south transept, can be

found Bil Viola’s installation Study

for The Path.

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Chiesa di

San Gottardo

in corte

Witness to the lordship

of the Visconti, not far from the Cathedral, the Palatine Chapel is seen today in its ancient splendour. Having over the years suffered various efforts at restructuring and restoration, original fourteenth-century elements are still visible externally, while the interior is in a neo-classical style. Beneath the choir in the counterfaçade can be seen a Crucifixion from the school of Giotto, while Susan Philipsz has arranged her sound work Close to me specifically for the space contained within the elongated hall of the nave.

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Chiesa di

San Raffaele

Part of a complex of four churches devoted to archangels, positioned symmetrically around St Maria Maggiore (occupying the space of the actual Duomo), the church of St Raphael is the oldest. It was spared from repeated attempts to demolish it in the last century, precisely because it was the only legacy of old Milan’s toponymy and religious reference point for the people of Milan. The two key elements that Jacir based her Via Crucis on are the fact that St Raphael today is a church which has no congregation and whose pastoral mission is the perpetual eucharistic adoration, as a space for meditation and quiet contemplation. Jacir’s Via Crucis is a testament to individual and collective history and a profound reflection on human suffering and on the movement within and around the Mediterranean.

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