QUIS – a novel for kids

Quis

a novel for kids

and for the Basilica di San Michele Maggiore

in Pavia

…a world of mysterious figures, frozen between light and shadows. Exotic animals, sirens and griffins, dragons, angels and demons, but also – perhaps more mysterious still – men, women and children. And these figures are carved in stone, by the hand of people like you and me, who lived long ago. No one can visit the Basilica di San Michele Maggiore in Pavia without marvelling at the architecture, and the sculptures, and wondering…

What stories did they want to tell, those who made the carvings? I asked myself that when I first arrived from Australia, and started getting to know this city, when I saw the church for the first time, apparently so different to any monument in my country, a land of young and modern cities. But that was twenty years ago. Afterwards I became a guide, a writer, a storyteller and a member of the Cultural Association The World of Tels, which creates The Original History Walks^®, and thanks to my friendship with the Associazione Il Bel San Michele o.n.l.u.s., I came to know the history of San Michele, its legends, and above all the profound bond between local people and the church. Little by little, I began to think that, in some ways, it is similar to certain Australian monoliths, imposing natural rocks that rise above our red earth toward the hot sun: places that are sacred to the Aborigines, where they meet and share rites and legends linked to ancient rock paintings, in a living culture that is tens of thousands of years old.

But knowing is a fickle thing: behind every answer you find lie other questions, and perhaps San Michele is even more mysterious now that I know it well. What stories did those masons want to tell us with their sculptures, nine hundred years ago? How did they explain them to their children, working alongside them? And what relationship is there between the sculptures, and the Archangel Michael? Who was, for them, ‘San Michele’, whose very name is a question: “quis ut deus?” – “who is like god?”

…so, let us enter with our imaginations the world of the masons and their children, nine hundred years ago. But hurry – Barbarossa is coming!

Do you want to find out more about the Basilica di San Michele Maggiore and contribute to the restoration work?