Founded in the 4th century on a cemetery site, it is one of the oldest churches in Milan.
St. Barnabas the Apostle is said to have baptized the city’s first Christians there, as the plaque on the baptismal font attests.
And precisely because Barnabas would have entered Milan from Porta Ticinese, even today the bishop who enters Milan to take possession of his diocese does so from Porta Ticinese.
Originally, the church contained the relics of the Three Kings, later stolen and taken to Cologne during the destruction by Barbarossa.
Rebuilt in Romanesque form, in 1227 it became, with the adjoining convent, the main seat of the Dominican Order in Milan and assumed a decisive role in the city’s religious life.
In the beautiful Portinari Chapel, an ark by Giovanni di Balduccio da Pisa houses the remains of the Dominican Saint Peter Martyr.
The cloisters of the adjoining convent house the Museum of the Basilica of Sant’Eustorgio and the Carlo Maria Martini Diocesan Museum.
Archaeological excavations have unearthed the ancient church and early Christian necropolis.
