The church of Santo Stefano is located not far from the city’s main cathedral, the Duomo. It was built in the V century around a stone, which beneath it had the relics of four Christian martyrs who were brutally tortured and then killed during the last century of the Western Roman Empire. The stone can be seen even nowadays, it’s under the centrals aisles. After that, the church was renewed in 1075 in Romanesque style, and to this day, it has this shape; it was restored a bit by the family Borromeo in the 16th century, but the structure remained the same.

The church is pretty old and well known by the Milanese because, in the past, people were baptised inside; the most famous person being baptised here is the painter Michelangelo Merisi, known as the Caravaggio. However, the most interesting fact about this church is that it was the place of one of the worst crimes in Milano’s history: the murder of Galeazzo Maria Sforza in 1476. Son of Francesco Sforza, Duke of Milan, who built the Sforzesco’s castle, he was an outrageous person, cruel, vengeful and hungry for power. For those reasons, he had so many enemies not only in the city of Milan but in all of Europe. Indeed he was stubbed on the church’s door in a conspiracy by Milan’s nobles and driven by the king of France. Nonetheless, the power of the Sforza family didn’t decrease: they carried on guiding the city.