Church
- Segrate
Chiesa di San Vittore a Rovagnasco
Historic church mentioned since 1295, altered over centuries, featuring a single nave, 17th-century artworks, and significant medieval and Renaissance elements.
"Of uncertain origin, the Church of San Vittore is mentioned together with the Church of San Silvestro—demolished in 1839—as early as 1295 by Abbot Goffredo da Bussero in his Liber Notitiae Sanctorum Mediolanensis, among the churches built in Rovagnasco within the parish (pieve) of Segrate.
The original building must have appeared very different from its present form, as the church underwent several alterations and expansions over time. The oldest part of the structure can be identified in the area now occupied by the presbytery, where the ancient entrance doorway—rediscovered during the 1997 restoration—once opened.
A Carrara marble holy water stoup, which before the restoration stood next to the entrance door, bears the date 1491, the year in which the building was likely remodeled and its orientation reversed.
Up to that period, the Church of San Vittore probably belonged to the Knights of Malta, who owned extensive properties in Rovagnasco between the 14th and 17th centuries; a stone at the base of the main entrance to the farmhouse, bearing a carved cross, may testify to this. It is certain that in 1570, during a pastoral visit, Saint Charles Borromeo was surprised to find the church owned by the noble De Ruade (da Rho) family and ordered an investigation into how they had acquired it.
At the beginning of the 18th century, the church appears in the Lombardo-Venetian cadastral maps with its current dimensions but without the entrance portico, which was added during the 1882 restoration, reusing older columns and capitals. The façade features a painted image of Saint Victor, executed over a much older and heavily damaged fresco.
Another certain date is 1575, impressed on the bells, which were returned to their place after the raising of the bell tower in the 1950s.
The interior consists of a single nave and is enriched by a fine altarpiece depicting the Crucifixion, dating to the early 17th century and historically attributed to the painter Nuvolone. On the north wall of the nave is a Nativity scene, a fresco of good quality but severely deteriorated due to humidity. The frame of this fresco echoes that above the main entrance portal and likely dates to the 18th century."
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Address: Via Monzese, 20054 Segrate (Milano), Italia
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