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SANTA MARIA AL PARADISO

In Corso Vigentina in Milan, in the historic center, there is the Church of Santa Maria al Paradiso. Famous is the legend of the stone located inside the Catholic place of worship. The stone on which the first Christian cross of this city was erected and whose date is important in the Milanese tradition, the famous "tredesin de marz": it was in fact on March 13, 52 AD, that St. Barnabas planted his cross. The stone in which, as per tradition, on March 13 of each year the Cross is exhibited, an image of what tradition said was planted for the first time in Milan by S. Barnba.

Archive

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Technical tables

Photographic archive

Before and after

THE FIRST STONE

The first stone was laid on June 27, 1590 by the Archbishop of Milan Gaspare Visconti. The façade was built in 1897, while in 1962 the church was elevated to a parish. The interior of the church has a single nave covered by a barrel vault with four chapels on each side. In the nave, traces of the original seventeenth-century decorations are preserved: the painted band with cherubs and festoons and, in the underside of the third chapel on the left, the stucco and tempera medallions with the Joyful Mysteries and other scenes from the life of Mary.

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PROCESSING STAGES

  • 2012-2013: Roofing, facade and external elevations works

  • 2013: Completion of internal survey and request for funding for interior restoration

  • 2014: Stratigraphic campaign and design

  • 2015: Request for contribution from the Cariplo Foundation and request for funding for the lighting system

  • 2016:  Beginning of work RESTORATION OF INTERNAL SURFACES

  • 2017: End of works RESTORATION OF INTERIOR SURFACES

PROCESSING

The restoration work concerned the internal surfaces of the Church, ranging from the decorated plaster to the stucco elements. The main purpose was to rediscover the original surfaces hidden under multiple layers of repainting. The procedures for carrying out the restoration have been identified, divided into the following macro phases: cleaning, consolidation, sealing and grouting, chromatic balancing. The first cleaning phase involved the removal from the surfaces of all the layers that compromised the legibility of the original finishes starting with a general cleaning using vacuum cleaners, brushes and soft bristle brushes to remove less coherent deposits, and then moving on to specific techniques for the removal of more stubborn foreign substances using compresses and the removal of unsuitable materials.

The next step was to seal  and fill the discontinuities present in the surfaces, also integrating the gaps present. This phase involves the integration, with specially formulated mortars, based on lime and any cracks, lack of plaster, etc ...

The last phase was the chromatic balancing. The pictorial integration allows to recover the legibility of the decorations and takes place through the punctual application, by brush, of watercolor colors and lime paints, allowing the reversibility of the intervention, the recognisability and the mending of the shortcomings, restoring unity of reading to the 'decorative apparatus

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video

VIDEO GALLERY

Closely examine the pre-intervention essays of the restoration work held inside the church of Santa Maria al Paradiso.

PHOTOGRAPHIC ARCHIVE
DURING THE WORK

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VIDEO GALLERY

Make the journey inside the construction site of Santa Maria al Paradiso, watch the executive video of the works held in the church.

TECHNICAL DOCUMENTS

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