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The Basilica of St. Michael Mayor is a masterpiece of the Romanesque architecture in Lombardy. It has a majestic nave and two aisles, surmounted by the lantern. The façade is richly decorated with sculptures, bas reliefs and figures of animals, plant volute cornices and green shoots. The present church was built on the site of a previous Lombard church and was the coronation place. In fact Frederich Barbarossa was crowned here in 1155.

BarbarossaMiniature

from a manuscript from 1188,

Vatican Library

The Basilica of San Michele Maggiore is 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 on the location of the Lombard Palace chapel (to this period belongs the lower section of the bell tower), but it was destroyed by a fire in 1004.

The basilica was the seat of numerous important events, including the coronations of Louis III (900) and Frederick Barbarossa (1155), among the others.

The façade is decorated by

numerous sandstone

sculptures, of religious or

profane themes; they are however

now much deteriorated. Bas

reliefs in horizontal bands portray human,

animal and fantastic figures

Unlike other churches of

Pavia, where the use of brickwork

prevailed, San Michele s

almost entirely covered with sandstone,

which absorbs light and

always gives different reflexes,

although due to its malleability,

it is easily attacked by atmospheric agents that continue to

create problems to the

decorations, now largely

illegible.

Everywhere there are a lot of bas-relieves of men and things, like scenes of deer hunting, scenes of jobs, like smith’s one, of fishing, of domestic life, of fights between men and strange monsters: dragons, hippogriffs, horses, sirens, eagles, sphinxes, lions, peacocks or cranes, sneering devils and other monsters, everything created by artists who perhaps came from Pavia

In the late 8th century, the Franks invaded Italy and deposed Desiderius, the last of the Lombard kings. Charlemagne (724-814) had himself

crowned King of Lombardy in Pavia.

In the 10th century, the Kingdom of Italy eventually fell into the hands of Otto I, a German elected as Holy Roman Emperor in 962. Ottonian control of Italy did not last long. Following the death of the German emperor Henry II in 1024, the people of Pavia burnt the royal palace, thus signaling an end to the Kingdom.

The current construction was begun in the late 10th century (crypt, choir and transept) and was completed in 1155. The vaults of the nave, originally with two grossly squared groin-vaulted spans, were replaced in 1489 by Agostino da Candia by four rectangular spans.

Altar details

Text and pictures: Internet

Copyright: All the images belong to their authors

Presentation: Sanda Foişoreanu

www.slideshare.net/michaelasanda

Sound: Nova Schola Gregoriana - Gregorian Chant For Meditation - Gradualia: Dirigatur