Santuario di San Bernardino alle Ossa

"During the Middle Ages the area around Via Brolo was outside of the city walls and mainly included woodland that was used for cultivation and hunting by the then Archbishop. In 1145, following a request from an esteemed citizen, a hospital was built near the Santo Stefano Maggiore Church. A cemetery was then put in place to bury the casualties from the hospital, but as time went on the modest burial site became overwhelmed and a small ossuary was constructed to relocate the bones from the cemetery and the hospital. This led to the formation of San Bernardino alle Ossa which was followed by the creation of the church in 1269. From the exterior there’s nothing to suggest there’s anything of interest or unusual about this typical Lombard Gothic church, but as you walk through the main entrance and down a short corridor you will discover the hauntingly beautiful ossuary chapel, which contains hundreds of human skulls and bones arranged in complex designs and patterns. It is a truly astonishing artistic display of baroque design with the bones creating religious symbols such as crosses on the walls and decorative motifs that lead one’s eye up to the celling. The intricate design is thought to be the work of local monks and dates back to the time of the ossuary’s reconstruction in 1750, (which took place after the bell tower of the nearby Basilica di Santo Stefano Maggiore collapsed onto the vault due to a fire). Some sources say that whilst one side of the ossuary holds the remains of charitable beings, the other side contains those who suffered violent deaths having been punished for their crimes. The ceiling is decorated with magnificent frescoes by the Venetian painter Sebastiano Ricci. Titled “The Triumph of Souls in a Flight of Angels” the artwork acts as a symbolic piece depicting the journey into the afterlife. The contrast between the macabre lower half of the room and the enlightening frescoes creates a rare juxtaposition and a captivating visual example of memento mori. The ossuary is free to visit and is a unique and quite unforgettable experience. So much so, that even King John V of Portugal was so taken by the sight that he built an exact copy in Evora, near Lisbon. "

"At less than 5 minutes' walk from Verziere, we can find the interesting Sanctuary of San Bernardino alle Ossa, built side by side with the Basilica di Santo Stefano Maggiore. The Sanctuary was finished in the year 1695 and was built over a small church and before a cemetery. A confraternity named the Disciplini was in charge of decorating the sanctuary and they decided to use the skulls and bones of the existing ossuary. The style of the sanctuary is baroque, with interesting frescoes and a statue of a Madonna and a dead Christ but the collocation of the skulls and bones designing a cross and other decorative motives are the true peculiarity of this place. A legend that began in the XVII century says that these bones were from the Christian martyrs who died battling the Arian heresy when Sant Ambrogio lived. But the official history tells us that these bones are coming from different places and different times. starting from the dead of the old hospital that was built near the church, convicts, and priests who worked in the nearby church of Santo Stefano. Another popular legend says that on All Saints eve the little skeleton of a girl located on the left of the altar becomes alive and takes the other recomposed skeletons to dance in the courtyard in front of the Sanctuary. The neighbors swear to hear the sound of the bones dring this night. "

"This is a very off-the-beaten path activity that you likely won't read about in many other places. In one of the back rooms of the Sanctuary of Saint Bernardino "Of the Bones" you'll find an ossuary chapel dedicated to the souls of the children who used to be buried in the cemetery behind the church that was damaged by the falling of a nearby belltower. The walls and ceilings of the chapel are decorated with frescoes and with the real bones and skulls retreived from the cemetery. The entrance is on piazza Santo Stefano, to the left of the Basilica of Santo Stefano Maggiore."