Chiesa di San Michele in Foro

This guide to Chiesa di San Michele in Foro in Lucca starts with the golden Archangel Michael spearing a dragon above a square that was once the Roman forum and, for centuries after, the city's grain market. It traces the four tiers of carved marble loggias masons spent generations raising over the church door, even as moneychangers and silk merchants kept the ground below in constant business. You'll hear about a jewel locals still say is hidden somewhere on the four-meter statue, never quite caught in the light. Look up at the facade first, then down at the square it was built to overshadow.