Sublime example of union between two historical eras, the Roman and the Renaissance, the San Michele Complex stands on the site of the ancient Roman tower that flanked the Gate of Augustus. An extraordinarily suggestive place for the conservation and continuation of memory and for the beauty of its perspectives, this complex is one of the symbolic places of the city.
The Renaissance complex, including the Church of San Michele and the palace of the same name, was built starting from 1494 and the first half of the following century, on the area immediately inside and outside the Arch of Augustus. The rubble of the upper attic of the Porta d'Augusto, destroyed during the siege of Duke Federico da Montefeltro, was used for the construction of the church of San Michele and the Loggia, erected in place of one of the two Roman towers that flanked the ancient Roman monument. To remember the original configuration of the Gate and to attest to the Roman and humanistic cult of the city, what remains are the slab engraved with the name of "Augustus" in Roman characters in the frieze of the upper portico, the sculpted image which reproduces the gate as it appeared before of the damage caused by the war events and a stone block on the left side with the Roman inscription dedicated to the prosecutor Sextus Truttedius Clemens. There were various subsequent modifications reported over the centuries. The candlestick portal sculpted by Bernardino di Pietro da Corona dates back to 1511, in which it is possible to notice the two medallions depicting the Emperor Maximilian I of Habsburg and Pope Julius II, as a metaphor of the collaboration between temporal power and spiritual power. The façade is in typically Renaissance style, made with Ischia stone and with a bell-shaped pattern. The loggia, beyond the arch, characterizes the entrance. The current stone columns that support the arches of the lower floor are the result of a later renovation, the work of the stonemason Giovanni Bosso who in 1543 also provided the eight Ionic order columns of the small internal cloister. In the 18th century the church underwent a total renovation and grew in height thanks to an elevation which was subsequently removed. The now deconsecrated church now houses the Museum of the Via Flaminia.
