45.4598°N 9.2052°WThe Rotonda della Besana (also known as Rotonda di Via Besana or Complesso di San Michele ai Nuovi Sepolcri, and originally as Foppone[1] della Ca' Granda) is a late baroque building complex and former cemetery in Milan, Italy, built between 1695 and 1732[2] and located close to the city center. The complex comprises a lobate hectagonal colonnade portico enclosing a garden and the deconsacrated church of San Michele ai Sepolcri ("Saint Michael by the Sepulchers").[3] The portico was designed by architects Francesco Croce and Carlo Raffaello Raffagno, while the church was designed by Attilio Arrigoni.[3] Although originally a cemetery, over time the Rotonda has been adapted for a number of other uses; today, it is a leisure area and a venue for cultural events.
The complex covers an overall area of 7,100 m2 and owes its current name to its location, at number 15 of Via Enrico Besana.[2]
The building was originally established to serve as a foppone (i.e., a cemetery for the poor)[1] for the Ospedale Maggiore (also known as the Ca' Granda, "Big House"), and hosted about 150,000 burials, placed in a complex system of catacombs (the catacombs are no longer accessible).[3] [4] In 1787, under Austrian rule, cemeteries were moved outside the city walls, and the Rotonda cemetery was thus dismissed. Under Napoleonic rule, plans were made to redesign the Rotonda into a famedio (i.e., a honorific burial place) along the lines of the Panthéon in Paris, but these plans were later dismissed.[5] The Rotonda was thus adapted for a number of other uses, including as a stable and a barn.[4] In the 19th century it was returned to the Ospedale Maggiore, which used it as a cronicario (a shelter for the chronically sick)[2] and a laundry building.[4] The Ospedale eventually donated the structure to the Comune di Milano, in 1939. The Comune restored the complex and adapted it to serve as a green area and as a venue for cultural and social events.[2]