San Michele Maggiore

The Basilica of San Michele Maggiore is a church of Pavia, one of the most striking example of Lombard-Romanesque style. It dates from the 11th and 12th centuries.

A first church devoted to St. Michael Archangel was built, at the desire of King Grimoald between 662 and 671, on the location of the Lombard Palace chapel , but it was destroyed by a fire in 1004. Recent archeological evidence shows pre-Lombard origins of the basilica from the fifth century, like the Ostrogoth silverware found in 1968 and now preserved in the Pavia Civic Museums. The current construction was begun in the late 11th century and was completed by 1130. The vaults of the nave, originally with two grossly squared groin-vaulted spans, were replaced in 1489 by the design of master architect Agostino de Candia in four rectangular spans, and the structure was created by his father the renown Pavia master mason Iacopo da Candia.

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