The Fondazione Luigi Rovati supports the research project of the Superitendence for Archaeology, the Fine Arts and Landscape for the metropolitan city of Milan, for the continuation of the archaeological excavations in the public gardens of the bastions of Porta Venezia related to the project “Ambrosian churches: San Dionigi, The Missing Church”.

The initiative includes historical, archival and archaeological study and targeted excavations, aimed at extending our knowledge of the churches of Ambrosian foundation outside the walls, in particular the complex of the lost church of San Dionigi.

This will entail investigating their stratigraphy, architectural typology, symbolic and identitarian meaning, in particular, in the imago urbis. The church of San Dionigi was one of four founded by Ambrose, elected bishop of Milan in 374. Together with San Nazaro, Sant’Ambrogio and San Simpliciano, the church formed a quadrilateral or, according to others, a cross. The churches were strategically located outside the walls and close to the city gates.