Church of S. Michele or Madonna della Strà

North apse : the masonry of the lower parts is rather rough, obviously when compared with the rest of the building, which could indicate an older construction. Its size, as already mentioned, differs from that of the south apse: the roof is higher, and this would not seem to be due to restoration, even though it is plastered today. A single lancet opens in the centre of the apse, while a second one is higher up and almost hidden near the junction with the central apse: this makes it clear that the construction, or reconstruction, of the central apse altered the layout of this minor apse, taking away part of its semicircle. The same did not happen with the small south apse, where the semicircle is, so to speak, complete. Looking at the apse end of the church as a whole, and also taking into account the masonry of the aisle front below the eaves, it can be seen that the whole northern sector shows archaic features compared with the other masonry of the church, while here too maintaining a marked separation between upper and lower parts. The monoliths supporting the roof slopes, a motif also repeated on the façade, deserve a note of their own. The corner stone of the south aisle, incorporated into modern buildings, is no longer visible. Well preserved and of excellent workmanship, on the other hand, is the monolith at the base of the left slope of the nave, its short side decorated with a bas-relief of a branch, with small leaves on the stem, inscribed in an arched frame, while on the long (lateral) side the leaf motif becomes more stylised and geometric (see photo end stone) . The monolith of the opposite slope is carved with a similar leaf motif on its short side, while the long side is of refined workmanship: within two small arches it depicts a leaf motif with tendrils branching out from the dividing colonnette that supports the two arches (see photo end stone 2) . The base of the slope of the north aisle is still partly visible: one lower corner has in fact been chiselled away, while the short side retains carved leaf motifs. Bell tower The square bell tower, with four windows on each side (probably the result of rebuilding) and a conical top, set against the north side near the east end of the church, does not show, as regards building technique, great care in the laying of the materials. Only the part reserved for the bell chamber repeats, on all four sides, the alternation of bands of red brick with light tufaceous stone. Interior The division of the interior space into three aisles must have followed the arrangement already observed in the interior of San Pietro di Villanova, that is, with alternating pillars and columns, except that here the sequence is not continuous; thus the second column on the right, starting from the entrance, is missing and has perhaps been replaced by or incorporated into the present pillar, which has constructional features different from the other pillars (supporting the view that this pillar, with a fresco on the side facing the nave, cannot be attributed to the Romanesque period is the fact that the large arches spring well inside the bearing surface created by the pillar, as if these arches actually rested on a smaller surface, perhaps determined by a column capital), or the two pillars in front of the chancel area, which have partly incorporated two columns. There is no crypt. The walls are covered with recent, thick plaster. Only the upper parts of the nave have clearly been restored with exposed stonework, cobbles laid in four herringbone courses in thick layers of mortar, interspersed with horizontal bands of white stones and rarer well-squared pinkish stones (see photo interior masonry) . As has been said, the two pillars preceding the chancel area deserve attention. These masonry structures have incorporated two columns (the one on the right is of Verona marble, see photo capital 1 ), with white stone capitals, both now visible only on the side facing the aisles. The two capitals have a simple, stylised decoration of caulicoli and palmettes. The other capitals do not offer a great variety of ornamental motifs: only one, of white stone and rather roughly squared, with chamfered lower corners and faces divided into four sectors, has stylised lions in the upper parts, while in the lower ones there are birds with outspread wings pecking, or plant motifs; at the base of the capital, within small arches, a floral motif develops instead. Note the shallow carving of the decorative motifs and the rather rough and primitive design, which suggests a pre-Romanesque product of barbarian taste (see photo capital 2) . Another ornamental type, set on a column of brown marble, is represented by a capital with arcane or pre-Romanesque decoration, which seems to be a reused piece. There is also a capital of red Verona marble carved in the shape of a corn cob, with strongly projecting geometric motifs, elongated and rounded towards the bottom and without decoration: it (see photo capital 3) , in a simpler way, repeats the motif that characterises the first capital of the left aisle of the church of San Pietro at Villanova. In a niche made in the perimeter wall of the south aisle, two barely legible remains of early medieval sculpture (perhaps parts of two small pillars carved with plant and geometric motifs) and scanty fragments of frescoes are set into the wall. Final notes The Belfiore complex (limited to the church and the bell tower, which, beyond the post-medieval rebuildings, show features identifiable in the architectural layout and in the materials used) and the similar church of San Pietro at Villanova are essentially balanced buildings (within the limits dictated by the practical application that this term implied in the Middle Ages, when an asymmetrical layout was not considered a constructional flaw), in which the need prevails to adopt architectural solutions with the sole aim of giving built form to the space intended for religious functions. In these so-called minor buildings, simple compared with the grandeur of the religious buildings of the major centres, the architectural expression of the elevation uses as a decorative solution the colour contrast between the whitish or ochre of the tufaceous or light stone and the red of the terracotta inserts.