Basilica di San Simpliciano

In the writings of St. Ambrogio (who was bishop of Milan from 374 to 397 A.D.) there is no statement that allows us to sustain that the construction of the very ancient basilica Virginum dates back to him, which for centuries and still today is known in Milan as the basilica of St. Simpliciano. 
And yet there is a constant tradition that says that the great Ambrose himself built it, placing it at the crossroads of one of the roads that connected the city of Milan with the Rezia River over the Alpine passes.
The project was daring: to demonstrate that the metropolis, which had become the capital of the empire as early as 286 A.D., was no longer pagan.

The churches Santambrosiane became an unequivocal proof of the new face of Milan, also because the bishop had wanted them not only to be erected on the great roads that led in the various directions of the empire, but to be located in such a way as to overlap more or less the four cardinal points.