S. Michele Maggiore Basilica is the most famous and most remarkable medieval religious monument in town. It is a masterpiece of Lombard Roman style and houses numerous testimonies of the period when Pavia was the capital of the Italic Kingdom. A pristine S, Michele Church was originally built in the Longobard period (like the lower part of the belfry) and then destroyed in a fire in 1004. The present building started in in the late XIth century (the crypt, choir and transept) to be completed in 1155. S. Michele Basilica is considered the prototype for the numerous medieval churches scattered over the Pavese area even though it has such distinctive features as the massive use of limestone instead of terracotta, both for the structure and the decorations, and for its peculiar architectural plan featuring a Latin cross with an exceptionally sized transept which has its own north-looking façade and its own fake apse at the opposite end, plus a peculiar barrel vault which differs substantially from the cross vaults featured in the other parts of the church: as if a second church had been included in the main one. The basilica was the venue for such sumptuous ceremonies and crownings as Frederik Barbarossa’s in 1155.