"The name of the Scalone dei Morti characterises this steep stairway that, along its last flight, housed many tombs of figures mainly unknown to us. There are seven tombs that can be identified today, five of which are included on a relief created under the direction of the architect Alfredo D’Andrade in the years 1888-1889. Starting from the bottom, three are on the right side as you go up, before the long final flight; the first two, lower down, are unknown, while the third, in the corner, is assigned to the nobleman from Turin Antonio Borgesio, mayor of Sant’Ambrogio, who, in 1318, made a will asking to be buried in the Sacra.
High up on the left, you can see a fourth tomb; the name of the deceased of this tomb is unknown, but must have been an important figure because this is the tomb that is against the most ancient chapel present on Pirchiriano, the heart of the Sacra. At its back, in fact, there is the primitive chapel, at the end of the corridor that one enters from the stairway placed inside the church. The fifth tomb, on the same right side of the Scalone near the Portale dello Zodiaco, is attributed, with some reservations, to Giorgio Gastaldi di Sant’Ambrogio or, more likely, to Tommaso di Chiusa who, on 19 August 1295, established a perpetual legacy for the monastery for a tomb on Pirchiriano.
The sixth tomb, also of an unknown person, is that which, according to Luigi Arioli, was placed behind the rounded arch below the last flight of the Scalone dei Morti. It can be seen from the entrance, looking upwards, left of the grand central column. A small cross is engraved at the bottom on the white plaster below. The seventh tomb, also called the “Sepolcro dei Rosminiani” (“Rosimians’ Tomb”) because in the past it gathered monks belonging to this congregation, is placed below the last section of the stairway, near the Portale dello Zodiaco. Access is at the bottom of the space between the flight of the Scalone and the window on the left. A last tomb was, finally, present at the beginning of the 1800s, at the top of the stairway, near the Portale dello Zodiaco. It appears in two drawings by Massimo D’Azeglio and must have been removed before the end of the same century."