It was construction ordered by one of the most famous saints in Christian history, St. Charles Borromeo.

He was archbishop of Milan when in Rho, On April 24, 1583, the Virgin who was depicted in a small chapel on the road leading to Lainate was seen weeping tears of blood by some of the people of Rhodes.

The archbishop himself personally laid the foundation stone of the basilica on March 6, 1584, eight months before his death, after having commissioned thearchitect Pellegrino Tibaldi, the right-hand man in the renewal of ecclesiastical architecture in the diocese in the context of the Counter-Reformation, to design the project.

The architectural layout was defined from the original design by the architect of San Carlo, Pellegrino Tibaldi, who envisioned a grandiose basilica in the shape of a Latin cross, with a vast nave suitable for holding huge flows of pilgrims.

The measurements of the church are imposing:
The length of the nave is 74 meters, the arm of the main transept is 43 meters , the dome reaches a height of 54 meters while the bell tower is 75 meters high.

Worth a specific visit are the Chapel of St. Joseph, decorated by Camillo Procaccini and helpers by 1603, with the splendid altarpiece of the Rest on the Flight into Egypt; the Chapel of St. George, with the valuable cycle of frescoes by Morazzone (1614-1615), the remarkable stuccoes and the altarpiece depicting St. George and the Dragon painted by Giovanni Ambrogio Figino around 1606; the sumptuous Chapel of St. Charles, among the most successful episodes of Baroque style in Lombardy, decorated by Andrea Lanzani in 1684.

Numerous 17th-century canvases are distributed among the Sacristy, Penitentiary and side chapels, including a Martyrdom of St. Catherine by Camillo Procaccini, the altarpiece in the Chapel of St. John the Baptist attributed to Giovanni Mauro della Rovere known as il Fiammenghino, and the beautiful altarpiece of St. Anne painted by Carlo Vimercati in 1714.

Grandiose nineteenth-century fresco cycles were executed in the nave by Giuseppe Carsana (1868-1889), a painter from Bergamo who came from theCarrara Academy, and by Luigi Morgari of Turin (1890-1895) assisted with refined decorations and quadratures by Achille and Angelo Secchi.

Much more to be discovered inside this grandiose work of art.

On the occasion of Jubilee 2025 "Pilgrims of Hope," the Beata Vergine Addolorata Shrine in Rho has been designated as a Jubilee Church of the Diocese of Milan.

To enhance the characteristic experience of the pilgrimage path, it can be reached by following the directions of the St. Augustine's Way route.

For more information: web www.camminodiagostino.it

Information about the Jubilee Year initiatives at the Shrine at the website: www.oblatirho.it