Verziere Column

Bronze plaques on the pedestal were added, bearing the names of 354 Milanese that were killed in the riots.

[1][2] The top of the column has a statue of "Christ the Redemeer" ("Cristo Redentore" in Italian) that was realized by Giuseppe and Gian Battista Vismara, and installed by the Milanese architect Francesco Maria Richini.

[2] The purpose of the column was twofold; it was meant both a votive offering to celebrate the end of the epidemic of plague that occurred in Milan in 1576-1577, and as a symbol of the power of Christianity to be opposed to the malicious power of the witches that were believed to inhabit the neighbourhood.

[2] Also because of bureaucratic issues, the statue of Jesus Christ could not be placed on top of the column until 1673.

A traditional story has it that the statue of Jesus Christ was originally facing towards the Verziere (which is not the direction it is facing now) and that Christ turned its head when a girl named "Barbarinetta" committed suicide by leaping off a balcony in the Verziere plaza.