Basilica di Sant'Eustorgio, Milan — Visitor Guide & Things to Do Nearby

The Basilica di Sant'Eustorgio is built on one of Christianity's most extraordinary legends: that it once held the relics of the Three Magi, the wise men who visited the infant Jesus. According to tradition, Bishop Eustorgius I received a massive stone sarcophagus from Emperor Constans I in 344 AD, said to contain the Magi's remains, transported all the way from Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. Legend says the oxen pulling the sarcophagus stopped from exhaustion near this spot, and the bishop took it as a divine sign to build a basilica right here. The relics became the basilica's greatest treasure until the 12th century, when Frederick Barbarossa sacked Milan during the Guelph-Ghibelline conflicts and the precious remains were seized and taken to Cologne Cathedral, where they remain one of Germany's most prized religious artifacts. It took until 1903-1904 for fragments of the bones and garments to be returned to Sant'Eustorgio, partially healing a wound that had lasted seven centuries. Today, visitors can venerate the returned fragments in a shrine above the Magi altar in the right transept. Every year on the Epiphany (January 6), thousands of worshippers process from Milan's Duomo to Sant'Eustorgio, recreating a pilgrimage that has connected these two churches for centuries. Questo's Milan adventures bring you to Sant'Eustorgio with the full story of the Magi relics, turning a church visit into a journey through one of the great treasure-hunt stories of European history.