  | Other car rental locations in Pavia (Per day) | |
|
 | Pavia Downtown car rental - Travel Guide |  |
Medieval PAVIA was known as the city of a hundred towers. And although only a handful remain - one of the best collapsed in 1989 - the medieval aspect is still strong, with numerous Romanesque and Gothic churches tucked away in a wanderable web of narrow streets and cobbled squares. The town is not, however, stranded in the past - its ancient university continues to thrive, ensuring an animated street life and reasonably lively night-time scene.
Pavia reached its zenith in the Dark Ages when it was capital of the Kingdom of the Lombards. After their downfall it remained a centre of power, and the succession of emperors who ruled northern Italy continued to come to the town to receive the Lombards' traditional iron crown. This all came to an end in the fourteenth century when Pavia was handed over to the Viscontis and became a satellite of Milan. The Viscontis, and later the Sforzas, did, however, found the university and provide the town with its prime tourist attraction - the nearby Certosa di Pavia
The Town
It's Pavia as a whole that appeals, rather than any specific sight. Just wandering around town is the nicest way to spend time here: pick any side street and you're almost bound to stumble on something of interest - a lofty medieval tower, a pretty Romanesque or Gothic church, or just a silent, sleepy piazza. Getting lost is difficult, as long as you bear in mind that the centre is quartered by the two main streets: Corso Cavour, which becomes Corso Mazzini, and Corso Strada Nuova.
One piazza that is neither sleepy nor silent is the central Piazza della Vittoria , a large cobbled rectangle surrounded by tatty buildings, housing bars, gelaterie and restaurants. At the eastern end steps lead down to an underground market , while at the square's southern end the Broletto , medieval Pavia's town hall, abuts the rear of the rambling and unwieldy Duomo - an early Renaissance sprawl of protruding curves and jutting angles that was only finally completed in the 1930s. The west front of the duomo, facing Piazza del Duomo , has been tidied up since the collapse of the adjacent Torre Civica in March 1989, which killed four people.
The best of the town's churches is the Romanesque San Michele , a five-minute walk away on Via Cavallotti. The friezes and capitals on its broad sandstone facade are carved into a menagerie of snake-tailed fish, griffins, dragons and other beasts, some locked in a struggle with humans, representing the fight between good and evil. It's also worth looking in on the church of San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro , on the other side of the centre at the top of Strada Nuova, dating from 1132 and containing a superb fourteenth-century altarpiece. Nearby, the Castello Visconteo (Tues-Sat 9am-1.30pm, Sun 9am-12.30pm; L5000/?2.58) was initiated by Galeazzo Il Visconti in 1360, and added to by the Sforzas. The austere exterior originally housed luxurious apartments, the majority of which were in the wing of the quadrangle destroyed by the French in 1527. But the castle was used as a barracks until 1921, and although it's been restored the rooms that remain are hardly stunning. The Museo Civico inside includes an art gallery with a handful of Venetian paintings, an archeology collection with Roman jewellery, pottery and glassware, and a museum of sculpture displaying architectural fragments, mosaics and sculptures rescued from the town's demolished churches - most impressive of which are the reconstructed eleventh- and twelfth-century portals.
|
|
|
|
|
