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THE INQUISITION
IN SANTA MARIA
DELLE GRAZIE

In Milan, the Inquisition, the Ecclesiastical Court in charge of repressing heresy,
was active starting from the mid-13th century,
based in the Dominican convent of Sant’Eustorgio.

In the Province of Lombardy, which in those days covered a larger territory, comprising what is now Emilia and the Triveneto,
the courts of the Inquisition were entrusted to the order of the Dominican friars.

In 1558, a year when the intense repression was extended to bishops suspected
of sympathising with Luther’s Reformation, the Inquisition’s headquarters in Milan
were moved to Santa Maria delle Grazie on the initiative of the Dominican friar Michele Ghislieri,
Supreme Inquisitor and future Pope Pius V.

Portrait of Martin Luther (Cranach the Elder, 1529)
1517 printed edition of the 95 theses, now in the Berlin State Library
The door of the church in Wittenberg, where Luther is said to have posted his theses
The friar Michele Ghislieri, Supreme Inquisitor and future Pope Pius V

Largely due to the work of Ippolito Beccaria,
general of the Dominicans and Inquisitor
of Milan from 1588, an edifice to house
the Tribunal was built next to the monastery.
In addition to a monumental entrance,
it had a tower for prisoners,
an apothecary’s workshop, meeting rooms
and an archive.

Site plan, Civil Engineers, late 19th century

The end of the Inquisition in Milan was sanctioned
in the Age of the Enlightenment. In 1775 Maria Theresa
of Austria ruled that the judges of the Inquisition
in the State of Milan would no longer be replaced
when their term ended.

With the death of the last Milanese Inquisitor, Giovanni Francesco Cremona (1779),
the Milan branch was permanently closed down.

Piazza Santa Maria delle Grazie during a practice by the fire brigade, 1812, Municipality of Milan, Musei e Istituti culturali Civica Raccolta delle Stampe Achille Bertarelli

The spaces devoted to the Court of the Inquisition
at Santa Maria delle Grazie were beside the Refectory,
adjoining much of the current museum complex.

They were partly demolished with the renewal of the architectural complex
in the late 19th century, but parts of the old walls remain with traces of fresco decoration.
Some are also visible in the filter areas giving access to the Refectory.

In an attic in the museum buildings, some fragments of wall paintings
were found during 2019. Given the location, the room was probably
part of the premises of the Court of the Inquisition.
It will be interesting to try to understand its iconography and functions.

In an attic in the museum buildings, some fragments of wall paintings
were found during 2019. Given the location, the room was probably
part of the premises of the Court of the Inquisition.
It will be interesting to try to understand its iconography and functions.