The basilica of S. Nazaro Maggiore (or in Brolo) built between 382 and 386 at the behest of Bishop Ambrose as the basilica Apostolorum ( with relics of the Apostles) on the area of a pre-existing necropolis adjacent to the ancient road to Rome, since 386 it has held the relics of St. Nazaro, found by Ambrose himself. It was the first Western church with a Latin cruciform plan. The interior is characterized today by the contrast between the white of the new plaster, the reddish lines of the terracotta ribs, and the gray stone of some early Christian masonry findings. In the Renaissance period the Trivulzio Chapel, by Bramantino, and the Chapel of St. Catherine, attributed to Antonio da Lonate (c. 1540), were added to the original structure, with a 17th-century wooden statue of Our Lady of Sorrows and Stories from the Life of St. Catherine frescoed in 1546 by Bernardino Lanino with the help of Gaudenzio Ferrari and Giovanni Battista Della Cerva.
