St. Michael München

The massive barrel vault ceiling inside Saint Michael covers the entire nave without a single supporting column. Duke Wilhelm the Fifth commissioned this Jesuit church in fifteen eighty-three to serve as a beacon for the Counter-Reformation in Bavaria. The architect utilized an innovative construction method to achieve such a wide, unobstructed interior space. During the second world war, bombs destroyed much of the roof and facade, but the vault itself held firm, preserving the hall that dominates the Kreuzviertel today.