San Satiro

This small church dates back to the 9th century. It was in the 15th century that Donato Bramante transformed the church to expand its limited size.

In an effort to make the church appears larger, Bramante included a trompe l'oeil  to add depth to the church behind the altar. The illusion uses realistic looking columns and arches to extend the 97 cm space to appear almost 10 times longer.

This is the first known trompe l'oeil painting technique

This is how the columns and arches look like from near