The parish of San Miguel, extinguished as such in 1843, is part of the set of ruined temples in the 19th century, however its Gothic-Mudejar factory, plus the elements added in the 16th century such as the tower and the façade, have had better luck than those of San Pedro, Santa Cruz, Santiago, Salvador or San Lorenzo, of which only a conscientious archaeological work would provide certain data on their conformation.

The following remains of San Miguel still persist among the adjoining dwellings: the apse of the church with brick windows of Mudejar tradition, the crypt, one of the side chapels, part of the tower, the side wall of the sacristy, some corbels of the central nave and its beautiful cover. The preservation of this cover was a cause of concern for the historians of the XIX century; Especially significant is the description that Pi y Margall made of it and the church in 1885: “The façade of the church of San Miguel and one of the cathedral reveal, even in its smallest details, elegance, delicacy, and taste. What a pity that such a beautiful work is condemned to disappear! The church to which he opened the way is already a courtyard where the waters of heaven make the grass grow; and there is the cover alone, completely isolated. Who will doubt that it will fall?

Fortunately, concern about the fate of this unique piece also found its way into the local authorities. In 1918 the Council of Jaén agreed to promote the file for its declaration as an artistic monument. In 1920 the transfer to the church of San Pedro was planned, at that time under reconstruction, although at present nothing remains of it. But it would not be in this temple where it is finally located, but in the future Provincial Museum, approved in the aforementioned year of 1920, being the Minister of Public Instruction and Fine Arts the Giennense Don José del Prado y Palacios. The project was largely carried out by the architect A. Flores Urdapilleta. The portal presides over the courtyard of the Museum in axis with that of the Pósito (16th century), placed outside the building.

Historiography has traditionally linked this cover of San Miguel with Andrés de Vandelvira. Perhaps one of the first researchers to do so was Dean Mazas in 1794: “The parish churches are in that poor state of their foundation, except for some arranged cover that was added later as that of San Miguel by hand, or Vandelvira's direction ( ...) ". Although documentary references on the commission are unknown, up to now, the architectural formulation points directly as the authorship of Andrés de Vandelvira.

According to the title page itself, it was built between 1560 and 1561, with Don Diego de los Cobos being the prelate of the diocese, promoter of the Santiago Hospital in Úbeda, designed and directed by Andrés de Vandelvira. The cover of San Miguel is one of the clearest pieces by Vandelvira, whose siloesque-inspired design was already developed on the lower body of the cover of the feet of El Salvador de Úbeda; its compositional scheme of a single body (repeated on the façade of San Nicolás de Úbeda and San Juan Evangelista de Mancha Real) is made up of a semicircular arch flanked by pairs of Corinthian columns on pedestals with veined niches in the intercolumniations, which will remain until the middle of the seventeenth century within what has come to be called the Vandelvirian school; The following inscription runs on the entablature: “This cover was finished in the year 1561, being the bishop of Jaén the most illustrious. and most reverend Mr. D. Diego de los Cobos ”; It is completed with a niche to house the titular saint and various geometric elements, also very Vandelvian.