BASILICA APOSTOLORUM (or BASILICA SAINT BASSIANO)

The Basilica Apostolorum was consecrated on 1 January 378 by St. Bassianus, the first bishop and patron saint of the Diocese of Lodi. At the time of construction, it was located on the outskirts of the city of Laus Pompeia, beyond the bridge over the Sillaro, at the fork of the roads to Placentia and Cremona.
The basilica was the first place of Christian worship in the newborn diocese; the consecration was attended by St. Ambrose, bishop of Milan, and St. Felix, bishop of Como. After the desth of Saint Bassiano, buried in the Basilica, it became know (unofficially) by his name. During the two desctructions of ancient Lodi by the Milanese (1111 and 1158) the Basilica remained intact. Following the foundation of the new Lodi, 6 kilometers away, the remains of Saint Bassiano were transferred to the cathedral of the new city.
The Basilica was rebuilt in the fourteenth century according to the Lombard Gothic style, however suffering in the following centuries from a slow degradation.
Restored at the end of the nineteenth century and in the mid-twentieth century, it is an important artistic and religious testimony. On 11 June 1875 it was recognized as an italian national monument. 

The basilica of the XII Apostoli stands outside the town of Lodi Vecchio, south-east of the latter. The exterior, with exposed brick walls, is characterized by the façade. This is salient and was radically restored between 1902 and 1908. The central part, located between two high semicircular buttresses, has, in the center, the portal with a lunette, slightly splayed, surmounted by the circular rose window and a round single-lancet window. Above the latter, inside an aedicule, there is the statue of Saint Bassiano.
In the two side strips of the facade, corresponding to the inner aisles but higher than them, a round-headed single lancet window, a rose window, and an ogival mullioned window open from below.  The interior of the church has three naves, with four bays the  side ones and five the central one, covered with cross vaults; the last bay of the nave, which is shorter, is covered with a barrel vault. The walls and vaults of the curch are decorated with frescoes from the XIV sec. attribuited to the master od Saint Bassiano, also financed by the city’s various guilds. Each of three naves ends with a semicircular apse lit by single-light round windows. In the third bay of the left aisle is the pipe organ, built in 1988 by the Tamburini organ company.
The instrument has mixed trasmission, mechanical for manuals and pedal and electric for registers, and its console, windowed, has three keyboards of 61 notes each and concave-radial pedalboard of 32 notes.