Sant'Eusebio was a church of
Pavia
Pavia ( , ; ; ; ; ) is a town and comune of south-western Lombardy, in Northern Italy, south of Milan on the lower Ticino (river), Ticino near its confluence with the Po (river), Po. It has a population of c. 73,086.
The city was a major polit ...
, of which today only the crypt remains. The church was probably built by the
Lombard king
Rothari
Rothari (or Rothair) ( 606 – 652), of the house of Arodus, was king of the Lombards from 636 to 652; previously he had been duke of Brescia. He succeeded Arioald, who was an Arian like himself, and was one of the most energetic of Lombard ki ...
(636–652) as the city's
Arian
Arianism (, ) is a Christological doctrine which rejects the traditional notion of the Trinity and considers Jesus to be a creation of God, and therefore distinct from God. It is named after its major proponent, Arius (). It is considered he ...
cathedral. It later became the fulcrum of the conversion to Catholicism of the Lombards initiated by
Theodolinda and the monks of San Colombano and which later received, precisely in Pavia, a great impulse from King
Aripert I
Aripert I (also spelled ''Aribert'') was king of the Lombards (653–661) in Italy. He was the son of Gundoald, Duke of Asti, who had crossed the Alps from Bavaria with his sister Theodelinda. As a relative of the Bavarian ducal house, his was ...
(653–661) and from Bishop
Anastasius.
History and architecture
The Church of Sant'Eusebio is mentioned in
Paul the Deacon
Paul the Deacon ( 720s 13 April in 796, 797, 798, or 799 AD), also known as ''Paulus Diaconus'', ''Warnefridus'', ''Barnefridus'', or ''Winfridus'', and sometimes suffixed ''Cassinensis'' (''i.e.'' "of Monte Cassino"), was a Benedictine monk, sc ...
's ''
Historia Langobardorum
The ''History of the Lombards'' or the ''History of the Langobards'' () is the chief work by Paul the Deacon, written in the late 8th century. This incomplete history in six books was written after 787 and at any rate no later than 796, maybe at ...
''. The seventh century apse perimeter remains today. The crypt dates back to the 11th century reconstruction interventions that involved the church, which underwent extensive reconstructions in 1512 and during the 17th century, only to be destroyed and rebuilt again in the 18th century. In 1923, it was decided to definitively demolish it as part of an urban "reorganization" of the area, from which the current Piazza Leonardo da Vinci and the evocative as well as anti-historical isolation of the
towers
A tower is a tall Nonbuilding structure, structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from guyed mast, masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting ...
emerged. The crypt, although remodeled in the
Romanesque period, still retains some capitals from the Lombard period that show a departure from classical art through original forms inspired by jewellery. It was thought that they were originally covered with glass paste or large colored stones, which would have given a more majestic and graceful aspect to the whole; one is divided into triangular closed fields, reminiscent of the contemporary alveolate fibulae, while a second has longitudinal ovals, similar to large water leaves, which seem to derive from the "cicada" fibulae used in all barbarian jewellery from oriental models. The vaults of the latter preserve frescoes, of Byzantine style, depicting busts of saints dating back to the second half of the 12th century. Visiting the crypt requires contacting the Civic Museums.
References
{{Reflist
Bibliography
* ''Musei Civici di Pavia. Pavia longobarda e capitale di regno. Secoli VI- X'', a cura di S. Lomartire, D. Tolomelli, Skira, Milano, 2017.
* Piero Majocchi, ''Pavia città regia. Storia e memoria di una capitale altomedievale'', Roma, Viella, 2008.
Lombard architecture in Pavia
Romanesque architecture in Pavia