What would you do in 1145 if the cemetery that services the poor people of Milan runs out of space?
You would exhume all of the bones and build a room to store them thus creating the most macabre mausoleum of Milan …

Where are we on our road trip through Northern Italy?
MILAN ➔ Como ➔ Sirmione ➔ Verona ➔ Venice ➔ Murano ➔ Burano ➔ Modena/Hombre ➔ Vernazza ➔ Pisa ➔ Florence ➔ San Gimignano ➔ Volterra ➔ Siena ➔ Assisi ➔ Civita di Bagnoregio ➔ Orvieto ➔ Mostri Park ➔ Sorrento ➔ Pompeii ➔ Herculaneum ➔ Amalfi ➔ Rome ➔ Malpensa

An Ossuary is a container or building that houses human skeletal remains. And this ossuary built in 1210 is one of the more interesting places to visit in Milan. The grounds that the building stands on were part of a cemetery that was populated from the poor who died of natural causes at a local hospital.

Various versions of the building came and went but the current one standing dates back to 1695.

NOTE: It is assumed that the Ossa is part of the large church ‘Basilica di Santo Defano’ but this is incorrect and misleading. If you are facing the large church with tower on its right, and a square in front of it, look at the building to the left of it with an octagonal roof. THAT is the building you go into and then turn a sharp right just inside to find the bones. A donation jar is displayed to visitors for the upkeep of this interesting location.

Its not just about bones. The Ossuary Chapel of San Bernardino alle Ossa in Milan also has a high altar that has beautiful frescoed ceiling of the “Triumph of Souls” which was painted by Sebastiano Ricci in 1695.

Please be reverent and quiet when you visit as it is still an active chapel, and all visitors should be respectful of that.