Codogno, The Collegiate Church of San Biagio

A chapel dedicated to St. Biagio is documented for the first time in 1025. However, nothing now remains from this original construction. In 1491 the church was completely rebuilt in Renaissance style, and in 1524 a restoration of the interior sought to accentuate classical lines. The ceramic facade dates from 1584 and is by the Cremona architect Giovanni Battista Regonino. It has two orders with a triangular tympanum and is particularly remarkable for the use of ceramic profiles and double panels with decorative niches. In the upper order there is a serliana window with a niche above containing a statue of St. Biagio. The protiro porch, on columns and high plinths, dates from 1585.
The interior of the church is a Latin cross, with three naves and lateral chapels.
An important force in building the church was provided by the Trivulzio princes, feudal lords of Codogno, who from 1491 wished to see a chapel dedicated to the Madonna of the Assumption. It is probable that the project began a few decades later, and perhaps actually from 1524 when work is documented in the interior of the church to open a series of chapels for the nobility along the sides. The years around 1530 therefore seem to have been decisive both for the architectural definition of the church and for its stock of pictures.
Gian Fermo Trivulzio oversaw the building work and commissioned the Lodi painter Callisto Piazza to paint a large altar-piece with “Our Lady of the Assumption”who is ascending to Heaven in the presence of the Apostles and the donors Gian Fermo Trivulzio and Caterina Landi, who are kneeling at the front.
The first decades of the 17th century, on the other hand, were strongly marked by the presence of Cardinal Teodoro Trivulzio. In 1635 the same Cardinal procured the dignity of Collegiate status for the church, and among his gifts is recalled a stand for the Host in gold.
Perhaps we should thank the same Cardinal for the arrival at Codogno of a masterpiece by Daniele Crespi, the “Madonna with Infants and Angels between St. Francis and St. Charles Borromeo”, characterised by an extreme formal elegance which reaches very high peaks of quality.