Garegnano Charterhouse is a former Carthusian monastery located on the outskirts of Milan. It now houses a community of Capuchin Friars.
The monastery, dedicated to Saint Ambrose but also known as Our Lady of the Lamb of God, was founded in 1349 by Giovanni Visconti, bishop and lord of Milan. It was then located some 4 kilometers from the walls of Milan. In the 14th century it housed, among others, the poet Petrarch.
It was pillaged in 1449 when the Visconti dynasty fell. It was suppressed under the rationalist reforms of the Emperor Joseph II, Milan then being under Austrian rule, and became a parish church in 1782. In 1960 the surviving buildings and parochial duties were taken over by the Capuchin Friars. The present buildings date from the 16th and 17th centuries.
The main artworks include a cycle of frescos in the main church by Simone Peterzano (1578) and Daniele Crespi (1629). The chapter house contains, in the vault, a fresco of Saint Michael by Bernardo Zenale of the early 16th century.
References:Visby Cathedral (also known as St. Mary’s Church) is the only survived medieval church in Visby. It was originally built for German merchants and inaugurated in 1225. Around the year 1350 the church was enlarged and converted into a basilica. The two-storey magazine was also added then above the nave as a warehouse for merchants.
Following the Reformation, the church was transformed into a parish church for the town of Visby. All other churches were abandoned. Shortly after the Reformation, in 1572, Gotland was made into its own Diocese, and the church designated its cathedral.
There is not much left of the original interior. The font is made of local red marble in the 13th century. The pulpit was made in Lübeck in 1684. There are 400 graves under the church floor.