Milan, made part of the German Empire by Charlemagne, has prospered as a center of trade due to its command of the rich plain of the Po and routes from Italy across the Alps.

The city’s Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio, originally founded by Saint Ambrose and begun in the mid-tenth century, is completed in 1128 as the outstanding example of mature Lombard Romanesque architecture.

Although the atrium and narthex reflect adherence to Early Christian traditions, the features typical of the Lombard Romanesque include the basilican plan without transept, the lack of a clerestory, towers outside the perimeter walls, brick construction, and a vaulted covering.

From Nuremberg, Conrad quickly crosses the Alps to be crowned King of Italy by Anselm V, Archbishop of Milan.

Frederick’s expedition results in the revolt and capture of the leading city of Milan, where Vladislaus’s coronation is celebrated in a second ceremony on September 8.

The Lombard cities will not accept the verdict of the Diet of Roncaglia, and it has to be enforced by war.

Imperial forces dominate prior to the true unification of the Lombard League (1167), and the city of Milan is razed to the ground in 1162, its inhabitants scattered among four villages.

Post destructionem Mediolani ("after the destruction of Milan"), the cities come to understand the value of a proper alliance.

The free-city-states of Lombardy—including Milan, Mantua, Venice, Padua, Lodi, and Brescia—that have warred with Frederick Barbarossa from 1158 over his assertion of sole authority to appoint governors in each town, form the Lombard League against the emperor in 1167 to repel his fourth expedition to Italy.

Alexander cooperates with them against Frederick, whose promotion of antipopes has fomented a schism within Roman Catholic Christianity.

The Lombard League had split into rival factions after 1183.

Disputes in Lombardy and Tuscany had instigated Emperor Frederick’s sixth Italian expedition, from 1184 to 1186, which results in the establishment of firm imperial political control in Milan and parts of central Italy.

Frederick II enacts for Lombardy in 1224 a law mandating that heretics be sought out and tried before a church court, and ordering convicted heretics to be seized by the secular authorities and burned.

Political life in thirteenth-century Milan shares the same path of many other communes in Italy, living an increasing series of inner divisions and episodes of corruption.

The noble family of the Della Torre (or Torriani) had gained the most important political charges in the commune, this way nullifying the democratic ideals of the original medieval commune.

They had also launched a program of public works and military expansions, which however had brought the Milanese treasury to collapse; the use of often reckless mercenary units had further exacerbated the population’s ire, lending increasing support for the Della Torre family’s traditional enemies, the Visconti.

The seventy-year-old archbishop Ottone, the son of Ubaldo Visconti, lord of Massino, Albizzate and Besnate, and one Anastasia (some sources attribute her the Pirovano last name), before his accession to the archbishopric, had been assistant to the Papal legate and cardinal Ottaviano Ubaldini.

In 1260, he was Podestà of Novara.

Visconti had succeeded as archbishop of Milan to Leone da Perego, elected on July 22, 1262, by Pope Urban IV in opposition to Raimondo della Torre, bishop of Como.

The latter had thus started to publicize an alleged Visconti nearness to the heretic Cathars and charged them of high treason: the Visconti, who accused the Della Torre of the same crimes, were then banned from Milan and their properties confiscated.

The civil war that ensued, lasting for more than a decade, has caused additional damage to Milan's population and economy.

Ottone had fought for the rule of the city with the Torriani family, and especially with Napo della Torre, lord of Milan, who had denied him access to Milan and had defeated an army under Teobaldo Visconti, Ottone's nephew, at Angera in 1276.

The Milanese had destroyed most of the fortifications in the towns of Brianza north to the city, fearing they could be used as strongpoints by the rebels and their northern ally, Como.

They had however spared those of Desio, some thirty kilometers north to Milan, as there converge three important trade routes from Como, Erba and Lecco.

On January 20, five hundred Milanese heavy cavalry move to occupy Desio, where they are to be be joined by another five hundred heavy cavalry which had just pushed back a rebel attack at Civate, and by some four hundred infantry.

Likely, their strategy was to attack Visconti's vanguard army, which amounted to some twelve hundred men (most infantry and archers), easily defeating it.

Next step was the destruction of the rebel base of Como.

However, the inhabitants of Desio abandon the now hated Milanese government.

Visconti (whom, according to tradition, was warned of the occasion; while others state that the Visconti attack pushed the populace to rebellion) rushes to the town before the Milanese reinforces can arrive.

Whether Visconti had foreknowledge, or the villagers rebelled, at dawn on January 21, 1277, the surprise attack against the government forces succeeds and the village of Desio is captured.

The gates are opened, and the rebels defeat the Milanese army: Francesco della Torre is killed, while his brother Napo is jailed in the Castel Baradello at Como, where he will die the following year.

Despite the minor size of the battle, Napo's capture is a fatal blow for the della Torre party.

The Visconti easily seize Milan and place their supporters in the most important positions, gradually strengthening their power, which will last until the mid-fifteenth century.

Ottone, as effective lord of the city, will embellish it and enhance its economy.

Henry is crowned king of the Lombards on January 1311, in Milan, a Guelph city.

Luchino Visconti had also taken part in the victorious battle of Parabiago.

Later in 1339, after Aicardus' death, he had triumphantly entered Milan, co-ruling in Milan with his nephew Azzone Visconti and his brother Giovanni, until Azzones's death in August of a gout attack.

Azzone is buried in the church of San Gottardo, which he had commissioned some years before.

He has no male heirs, having had only a daughter, Luchina.

He is also remembered for his great construction works in Milan and other cities of Lombardy.