The exhibit layout opens with a group of artworks that come from the former Basilica di Sant'Ambrogio Museum, which has been closed down, and which had been the location of a series of objects that were mainly connected with the history of the basilica or Milan’s patron saint.
These included the great clypeus with the Bust of St Ambrose giving blessing, attributed to the tenth century, which is now present in the Diocesan Museum, symbolically shown at the entrance of the first room.
Of great historical value there are also the fragments of the wooden shutters from the main portal of the basilica of Sant'Ambrogio, dating back to the fourth-sixth century. Then there is the so-called Bedstead of St Ambrose, dated fourth century and which is fascinating from the standpoint of the history of devotion, as it is said by tradition to have been where the Saint’s body was laid for veneration by the faithful during his funeral, which was held in this very basilica. Apart from some wooden carvings brought from the fifteenth-century choir of Sant'Ambrogio, there are also several frescoes, also originally from the church: the Pious Women and the Christ bearing the Cross, the latter recently attributed to Andrea Solario