Oratorio di San Protaso

The Oratorio di San Protaso ("Oratory of Saint Protasius"; Lombard: Oratori de San Protas [uraˈtɔːri de ˌsã ˈprɔːtas], colloquially known as Gesetta di Lusert [dʒeˈzɛta di lyˈzɛrt] "Little Church of the Lizards") is a church in via Lorenteggio, Milan, Lombardy.

The Oratorio was built around the year 1000 AD, far outside the walls of Milan at the time, as a small place of worship for the peasants. It was a property of the Basilica di San Vittore al Corpo, which provided a priest for the Mass; Saint Protasius, whom the Oratorio is named for, was martyrized and buried in the San Vittore Basilica.

The building, not in line with via Lorenteggio, the road by which it was built, was probably in line with either another street which, starting from the Medieval walls of Milan, went westwards along the Olona river, or in line with the summer solstice as it was a custom in pagan times: this could mean that the Oratorio was built on the site of a former pagan place of worship.

According to a Milanese legend, during the siege of Milan of 1161-62 by the armies of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa, the Milanese forces had put on a particularly strong resistance in the area of Lorenteggio; once his armies managed to drive the Milanese back, the Emperor stopped in this oratory and prayed, thanking God for the victory. Another legend tells that, during the Black Death in the 14th century, a hermit settled in the oratory to pray and his faith protected the whole village from the pandemic.

In the next centuries the Oratorio was then used for some years as a chapel by a group of female monks of the Order of the Angeliche of Saint Paul (founded in 1530 by countess Ludovica Torelli) who lived in a nearby farmhouse, probably a convent at the time. In the 17th century control of the church was taken over by the Olivetans.

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