San Michele Maggiore can be considered the prototype of other important medieval churches in Pavia such as
San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro and
San Teodoro. However, it differs from latter in the use of
sandstone instead of bricks, and for its Latin cross layout with a nave and two aisles and a long transept. San Michele's
transept, provided with a true façade, a false apse and a barrel vault, differs from the rest of the church and constitutes a nearly independent section of the edifice. Its length (38 m, compared to the 55 m of the whole basilica), contributes to this impression. At the crossing of nave and transept is the octagonal dome, a 30 m-high asymmetrical structure supported on squinches, in the Lombard-Romanesque style. It is reportedly the earliest example of this form in Lombardy. The façade is decorated by numerous sandstone sculptures, of religious or profane themes; they are however now much deteriorated. The façade has five double and two single
mullioned windows and a cross, which are a 19th-century reconstruction of what was thought be the original scheme. Bas reliefs in horizontal bands portray human, animal and fantastic figures. Over the minor portals are portrayed
St. Ennodius,
bishop of Pavia, and St.
Eleucadius,
archbishop of Ravenna. In the lunettes are angels which, according to a caption sculpted there, have the role of ambassadors of the faithful's words into heaven.Bronze doors, coloured mosaics, geometric designs, bronze pilasters. The main nave now has four spans or four bays, like the side aisles. The bays of the main nave have a rectangular plan with the longest side parallel to the facade and are covered by cross vaults with ribs. The vaults were built between 1488 and 1491 by
Iacopo da Candia and by his son, the master architect
Agostino de Candia. Originally, however, there were only two cross vaults with a roughly square plan which probably directly supported the roof covering. Instead, according to Piero Sanpaolesi, who conducted the restoration work on the external facades in 1966–1968, the central nave was covered by two domes, hemispherical or low-mounted, on the model of Romanesque-Byzantine basilicas such as San Marco in Venice, set on spandrels whose remains are still present above the fifteenth-century cross vaults The aisles have
matronaea with statical function. The four chapels in correspondence of the second and four spans of the aisles are a later addition. under the apse, which has a large 16th-century fresco, is the high altar (1383) housing the remains of Sts. Ennodius and Eleucadius. The
presbytery has fragments of a notable pavement mosaic with the
Labours of the Months and mythological themes. In the transept there is a two meter high crucifix, coated in silver leaf and commissioned by the abbess of the monastery of Santa Maria Teodote Raingarda in the second half of the 10th century. The crucifix was moved to this basilica after the suppression of the monastery in 1799. Altar of the Virgin: the altarpiece, depicting the Virgin between Saints Rocco and Sebastian was executed by
Guglielmo Caccia in 1601. In the left arm of the transept there is the altar of Santa Lucia, whose altarpiece, depicting the martyrdom of the saint, is also the work of Guglielmo Caccia and the baroque altar of Sant'Anna, rich in Baroque stucco, which houses a painting representing the Virgin and Child, St Joseph and St Anne by the Novarese painter
Pietro Antonio de Pietri. The
crypt, with a nave and two aisles, is located immediately under the altar: it houses beautifully decorated capitals and the monument of the Blessed Martino Salimbene (1491). To the left of the crypt altar, there is a small marble statue depicting the Madonna and Child, perhaps from the Pisan or Sienese school of the 13th-14th century. Next to the altar in the crypt is the treasure of Saint
Brice, a group of liturgical furnishings from the 12th century consisting of a
thurible, a bronze bell, a silver-plated copper vessel with set glass, some wooden pyxes and fragments of fabric of silk and gold threads, found in 1402 in the church of
San Martino Siccomario and brought in 1407 to the church of Santa Maria Capella in Pavia. In 1810, when the church of Santa Maria Capella (documented from 970) was deconsecrated, the treasure was transferred to the basilica. The furnishings are kept inside wooden cases with friezes in silver foil dating back to 1765 and were erroneously believed up to 1863 to be relics of
Brice of Tours, while in reality the objects belonged to an individual named Brice who was not better identified. ==The royal coronation ceremony==