Santuario di Santa Maria di Piazza, Busto Arsizio

The shrine of Santa Maria di Piazza is located in the historic center of Busto Arsizio, where an earlier church dedicated to Our Lady stood, which in turn had replaced a chapel dating back to the time of Christianization. This splendid Marian shrine was quickly built between 1515 and 1522.

Two names appear in the documents dealing with the construction of the temple: that of Antonio da Lonate and that of "magistro Tomaxio ingeniero," probably Tommaso Rodari, the well-known sculptor and architect active in the Como cathedral and a pupil of Giovanni Antonio Amadeo. The former would have set the central plan, for which a Bramantesque design, "Bramanti secutus exemplar," has been speculated; the latter would have executed the two portals to the west and south, and perhaps the elegant loggia in the drum under the dome similar to the tiburium of the sanctuary of the Beata Vergine dei Miracoli at Saronno, attributed to Amadeo.