Chiesa di San Michele in Foro
The façade of San Michele in Foro stops you before you've finished crossing the piazza. Four tiers of small loggias rise above the roofline, each column slightly different from the last, and at the very top a four-metre bronze archangel catches the light — on certain bright days, a green glint from the statue has fed a centuries-old rumour about an emerald hidden inside. No one has ever found it.
The church stands on the exact footprint of the ancient Roman forum, which is why it carries 'in foro' in its name. That continuity runs deep here: people have been gathering on this square for the better part of two thousand years, and the steps are still occupied most afternoons by locals eating gelato.
💛 What travellers fall for
People who return tend to come back for Filippino Lippi's 1483 altarpiece — four saints arranged with quiet precision — and for the Luca della Robbia Madonna in enamelled terracotta, which glows unexpectedly in the nave's half-light. Go in the morning when the interior is emptier and the loggia columns catch the low sun from the east.
Deals in Chiesa di San Michele in Foro
Book directly at the providerHow Chiesa di San Michele in Foro came to be
A document from 795 places a church 'ad foro' — at the forum — on this site, though the structure you see today began taking shape after 1070, when Pope Alexander II ordered a full rebuilding. The façade accumulated its current form through the 13th century, with sculptural work associated with Guidetto da Como's school, whose signature small loggias also appear on the nearby cathedral of San Martino, and possibly with Diotisalvi, who later built the Baptistry at Pisa.
For nearly three centuries, until 1370, the church served a civic as well as a sacred function: the Consiglio Maggiore, Lucca's governing assembly, met here. The bell tower's top floor was demolished in the 1360s, reportedly on the orders of the Doge of Pisa — either because it overshadowed a Pisan tower or because its bells could be heard as far as Pisa itself.
Who and what shaped it
People who shaped it
Landmark buildings
Plan your visit
On the map
When to go
Right now
Background & history adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA) · specs from Wikidata (CC0) · weather from Open-Meteo · map data © OpenStreetMap contributors · photos from Wikimedia Commons / Unsplash with per-image credit. No third-party reviews or social posts reproduced.