San Michele Arcangelo (Perugia)
The round church of San Michele Arcangelo (also called Tempio di Sant'Angelo ) in the Umbrian city of Perugia is an early Christian church building from the 5th / 6th centuries. Century. It is dedicated to the Archangel Michael .
Building history
Very little reliable information is known about church construction; Most of it is speculative: the church was probably built on the foundation walls of a mithraum or an ancient round temple or even an Etruscan rotunda. In the Middle Ages the building served as a parish church. At the end of the 15th century the - probably already dilapidated - building was partially demolished and used as a military fortress. In the 16th century, however, the Cardinal Tiberio Crispo ordered a restoration. Remnants of frescoes were discovered during a renewed restoration in 1948.
architecture
The ground floor of the building is made of only slightly worked rubble stones; only the border of the Gothic pointed arch portal , which was added in the 13th century and stepped back several times, is made of bricks. To the left and right of the portal, the arches of previously existing windows can be seen to some extent; the mighty buttresses seem to have been added later, despite the quarry stone used. The drum structure with its twelve arched windows consists of layers of bright rubble stones and red bricks.
In the ground plan from 1860, the outer building appears as a slightly irregular hexagon with an apse with two small lateral cones that was added later - oriented to the northeast . The interior of the windowless ground floor church is dominated by 16 antique - almost certainly as spoils reused - monolithic columns of different stone material and ancient capitals , carrying a superstructure, whose eight of brick masonry and light to the center rising ribs support a wooden roof structure . The church building is lit exclusively through the windows of the drum floor; there is only a small window in the apse. The entire area around the ground floor is not arched, but covered in a similar way to the tambour.
Others
- A few meters from the entrance portal, a stone with a pentagram (also called 'Drudenfuß') is embedded in the floor of the church , which has given rise to much speculation.
- On several capitals there are incised letters in Greek script, about their possible internal connection and its possible meaning can only be speculated.
- Crosses that vaguely resemble a Templar cross are carved into some stones of the masonry .
photos
eight-part vault
Gothic fresco with St. Veronika u. a.
literature
- Ottorino Gurrieri: Il tempio di San Michele Arcangelo in Perugia. Guide illustrata. 2nd Edition. Grafica, Perugia 1976.
- Mauro Menichelli: Templum Perusiae. Il simbolismo delle porte e dei rioni di Perugia. Futura, Perugia 2006, ISBN 88-95132-01-7 .
- Maria Rita Zappelli: Caro viario. Un viaggio nella vecchia Perugia attraverso le sue mura, porte, vie e piazze. Guerra, Perugia 2005, ISBN 88-7715-346-6 .
Web links
- San Michele Arcangelo - Photos + Info (Italian)
- San Michele Arcangelo - photos + information (Italian; PDF; 173 kB)
Coordinates: 43 ° 7 ′ 12.2 ″ N , 12 ° 23 ′ 7 ″ E