San Michele Arcangelo, Baroque church in Busto Arsizio, Italy

San Michele Arcangelo stands in Piazzetta Don Pio Chieppi in central Busto Arsizio. Its baroque facade is divided by a tall cornice into two bands: the lower has Ionic pilasters and a large portal flanked by marble half-columns, the upper has Corinthian pilasters and a rectangular window. A triangular pediment carries four angel statues and San Michele at the centre. Inside, a single nave with a lunetted barrel vault opens onto ten side chapels, five per side.

A small chapel already stood inside a Lombard fortification destroyed around the end of the 13th century. The church was rebuilt in basilica form with a single nave and three semicircular apses at the end of the 13th or start of the 14th century. It was rebuilt again between 25 March 1653 and 1679 to increase capacity, to a design by Francesco Maria Ricchino, with the orientation reversed because the town ditch and bastions blocked westward expansion; the bell tower ended up beside the facade. The facade was finished in 1796.

The church is dedicated to Saint Michael the Archangel, patron saint of the Lombards and of Busto Arsizio, and has been the seat of a provost since 1924. Inside, the Chapel of Saint Felix holds his urn and reliquaries from the 16th and 17th centuries, including one shaped as a cross and two as busts of saints.

The church is located at Piazzetta Don Pio Chieppi in the town center and is open to visitors year-round. You can visit during services or when not in use for religious ceremonies to view the architecture.

The bell tower beside the church is the oldest structure in Busto Arsizio, built of stone and river pebbles in the 9th or 10th century as part of a Lombard fortification. It was raised with a clock section and, in 1559, a belfry; the Barigozzi foundry of Milan cast its bells, which grew from three to twelve in 1889.