The Church of San Vittore is that of the suppressed Monastery, built near the site of another one, which was said to date from around the 10th century.
In fact, the early medieval tradition has it that two brothers of the noble Milanese Corio family, Aimo and Vermondo, attacked by wild boars while hunting in the woods, had to take refuge in the trees and vowed to build a monastery there in case they were saved.
Having made the vow, the boars immediately moved away, and then the young men returned to the woods of Meda and built on the hill of the miracle the Monastery, "to which they gave the rule of St. Benedict and the name of St. Victor." The Monastery, powerful in the Middle Ages because of its feudal rights and many possessions, lived on until it was suppressed along with others in 1798 by the Cisalpine Republic.
The Church of S. Vittore, erected under Abbess Maria Cleofe Carcano, was finished construction in 1520 and consecrated in 1536. Still a consecrated place, it is one of the best expressions of the late Lombard Renaissance, embellished by the Baroque facade added in 1730.
The structure and many of the decorations are reminiscent of the Church of San Maurizio at Monastero Maggiore in Milan.
The church, entirely frescoed, is divided into two parts, the "interior," cloistered, and the "exterior," intended for the faithful.
The dominant presence is that of the school of Bernardino Luini, a school that must have operated under the direct guidance of the master. The side walls are divided into "chapels" - some later renovated from the original design - frescoed and enriched with altars, pilasters, cornices, friezes, sails and veils, all richly decorated with multiple motifs and subjects.
The vault is richly frescoed with Renaissance motifs, arabesques and symbols of the Passion of Jesus. On the left wall, the first chapel houses the so-called "Mortorio," a precious wooden group with life-size statues depicting the Deposition of Christ. No less valuable than the side walls is that of the high altar, both for artistic and religious significance. Indeed, the urn under the mensa preserves the remains of Saints Aimo and Vermondo, while above the tabernacle dominates the large altarpiece by Giovan Battista Crespi, the Cerano, and at the sides of the altarpiece the frescoes attributed to Giulio Campi.
The inner cloistered church was unfortunately converted in the Napoleonic period into a granary and divided into two parts by a partition, later housing a "limonera" and even a military infirmary. The frescoes on the walls of the chapels were covered until a few years ago by lime and are less valuable than those in the outer church.
Newly noteworthy, however, are those found in the "Choir Room" on the upper floor.
