What to see in Pavia, one-day itinerary including the main monuments and places of interest, including Basilica San Pietro in Ciel d’Oro, Visconteo Castle, Duomo, Covered Bridge and Charterhouse.
Tourist information
Capital of Lombardy and home to numerous commercial, industrial and agricultural activities, as well as an important university, Pavia retains a wealth of medieval monuments in its historic center.
With the name of Ticinum, it was a Roman settlement of considerable importance, later it developed a lot during the Middle Ages.
It became the capital of the Lombard kingdom assuming the name of Papia and seat of the Italic government until the eleventh century.
After the internal struggles, it was subjected to the dominion of the Visconti who made it a cultural and artistic center with the institution of the university and the Charterhouse.
Until 1713 it had to undergo Spanish rule, after it became part of the Lombard-Venetian kingdom, before being annexed to the Kingdom of Italy in 1859.
The basilica San Pietro in Ciel d’Oro, of Lombard foundation and rebuilt in the twelfth century in Romanesque style, is located in the square of the same name.
In the hut-shaped facade, made of brick, there is a skilfully decorated portal, while the interior has three naves with apses and divided by columns.
Above the main altar there is the marble ark of Saint Augustine, where the relics of the saint are kept, a work carried out in the fourteenth century by Lombard workers.
Below the presbytery area is the crypt, reworked during the nineteenth-century restorations, especially as regards the colonnade and the vaults.
In the rear area of the altar there is the sarcophagus, in the Ravenna style but executed in 1920, where the bones of the philosopher Severino Boetus are kept.
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In Piazza Castello there is the Visconteo Castle, whose construction was started by Galeazzo II Visconti in 1360 and completed by his son.
The square-shaped plant has a very solid appearance, with fronts softened by a double order of mullioned windows that are also present in the towers placed at the corners.
The northern part of the castle, along with the two towers that were part of it, was razed to the ground by French troops in 1527.
The vast courtyard, surrounded by an arcade with a Gothic mullioned loggia, includes beautiful terracotta decorations.
In the rooms of the castle there are the civic museums, including the Risorgimento museum, the archaeological museum and the sculpture museum.
Other than these there is also a picture gallery.
The Fraschini theater, built in 1771 by Antonio Bibbiena, and the University building, which houses one of the oldest Italian universities, overlook the Corso Nuova street.
The current university complex consists of a fourteenth-century nucleus, formerly the headquarters of the San Matteo hospital.
Three imposing towers of medieval origin are located behind the University building in Piazza Leonardo da Vinci.
The Gothic church of Santa Maria del Carmine has a monumental facade including two statues.
What see
The Corso Carminali-Bottigella is located in Corso Cavour, a pleasant building by Bramante dating back to the end of the fifteenth century.
In Piazza della Vittoria there is the Broletto, a twelfth century building where the Municipality was once housed.
In the Piazza del Duomo you can see the remains of the civic tower, which collapsed in 1989, in addition to the Cathedral, which is a huge Renaissance building whose construction began in 1488, continuing for a few centuries.
The interior of the Cathedral of Pavia is very interesting for its grandiose architectural structure, including a huge dome.
The church of San Teodoro, in late Romanesque style and dating back to the thirteenth century, has an interior with three naves, equipped with an apse, which contains a painting that portrays a beautiful view of Pavia, a 1522 work by the painter Lanzani, in addition to the fourteenth-century statue of San Teodoro, with sixteenth-century frescoes, located in the presbytery area, and to the very interesting crypt, arranged on seven small naves.
Leaving the cathedral, taking the nearby Corso Nuova road, you can quickly reach the covered bridge over the Ticino river, which is a modern reconstruction of the original, which was destroyed during the Second World War.
After crossing the bridge you arrive in the Borgo Ticino district where, in via dei Mille, stands the church of Santa Maria in Bethlehem, a twelfth-century building with a tripartite facade in Romanesque style.
Going back towards the center, you reach the basilica of San Michele located in via Diacono, which constitutes one of the most significant buildings in Pavia with Romanesque architecture.
This cult building has a large gabled façade in sandstone, divided vertically by four pillars and finished with hanging arches, the shape of which is taken from the apse and lantern.
Of particular interest are the decorations of the three splayed portals, finely carved, and of the lower part of the facade, where horizontal bands with beautiful reliefs depicting symbolic and imaginative motifs stand out.
The Latin cross interior is divided into three naves, with columns featuring remarkable carved capitals and matroneums.
The transept, which appears to be very protruding, is covered by massive barrel vaults, interrupted in the center by the high octagonal lantern.
The Borromeo college, located in the square of the same name, was built between 1564 and 1685 by Pellegrino Tibaldi, at the behest of San Carlo Borromeo.
The courtyard is very interesting, with a two-tiered porch.
At 8 km from the center is the famous Certosa di Pavia, built between 1396 and 1452, where you can admire the frescoes of the vestibule and the large courtyard, where the guesthouse and the church overlook.
Of particular interest is the elaborate apsidal area, where Romanesque elements blend beautifully with Gothic elements.
The three-nave interior, well decorated, contains paintings by Perugino, Morazzone, Guercino, Macrino d'Alba and Luini.
In the transept are placed the tomb statues of Beatrice d'Este and Ludovico il Moro, while the choir stalls are of considerable interest in the presbytery.
Passing through a carved door, placed in the right transept, you enter the small cloister, surrounded by a portico and having elaborate terracotta decorations, from where you have access to the refectory which preserves remarkable frescoes by Bergonone.
The small cloister is in communication with the large cloister, which leads to the monks' cells.
