Rotonda della Besana
The Rotonda della Besana began life as a baroque cemetery complex built in Milan between 1695 and 1732. Originally known as Foppone della Ca’ Granda, it was created for the poor by the Ospedale Maggiore—the “Big House”—and it held about 150,000 burials arranged through a system of catacombs that are no longer accessible. Architecturally, the site is defined by its lobate, hectagonal colonnade portico, which encloses a garden and the deconsecrated church of San Michele ai Sepolcri. The portico was designed by Francesco Croce and Carlo Raffaello Raffagno, while the church design is credited to Attilio Arrigoni. In 1787, under Austrian rule, cemeteries were moved outside the city walls, and the Rotonda cemetery was dismissed. A later Napoleonic plan to convert it into a famedio along the lines of the Panthéon in Paris was dropped. …
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