The chapel of the blessed virgin of miracles: A multidisciplinary approach for the project of conservation and reuse

Abstract

From the date of its construction the chapel of the Blessed Virgin of Miracles is an important reference for the devotional Milanese population. It is so significant that the funding for its construction are raised thanks to the offerings of the faithful people visiting the church of S. Maria alla Porta, attached to which the chapel was built in 1705 to preserve the image of a Madonna and Child found—by chance—in the same church during some maintenance works carried out in 1651. During the XVIII and XIX centuries the chapel and the painting acquire an increasing importance and affection that will continue to grow until the tragic events of the World War II and, in particular, the bombings of 1943, which destroyed the chapel, saving only the wall adjacent to the church even if severely disfigured. The project of conservation and reuse aims to give back the building and its values to the city, valorizing the two crucial aspects that have characterized, and still characterize, the chapel. The one linked to the devotion to the Virgin and the other connected to the memory of the wounds caused by the war. Despite the small size of the ruins, the approach to the conservation project has been set on a strong multidisciplinary approach which allowed to reach excellent results in terms of knowledge of the status quo of the remains from both morphological/material and historical/documentary points of view.