Pisa, The baptistery of San Giovanni

2021

the baptistery of San Giovanni is one of the monuments in the Piazza dei Miracoli, in Pisa; it rises in front of the western facade of the cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, south of the monumental cemetery. It is the largest baptistery in Italy, and also in the world: its circumference measures 107.24 m, while the width of the masonry at the base is 263 cm (2 meters and 63 cm), for a height of 54 meters and 86 centimeters. The construction of the building began in the mid-twelfth century: "1153 mense Augusti fundata fuit haec ...", or "In the month of August 1153 it was founded ..." (1153 in the Pisan calendar corresponds to 1152). It replaces an earlier, smaller baptistery which was located north-east of the Cathedral, where the Camposanto is now located. It was built in Romanesque style by an architect who signed himself «Diotisalvi magister…» in a pillar inside the building. Later Nicola and Giovanni Pisano were also foremen of the yard, as well as Cellino di Nese. In the nineteenth century, at the same time as a renewal that affected the entire Piazza del Duomo and its monuments, the baptistery was subject to a radical restoration by the architect Alessandro Gherardesca, with interventions that led to the reconstruction of some portals and a large part of the decorative apparatus. Despite the denunciations of some intellectuals and prominent personalities of the Pisan culture of the time, such as Carlo Lasinio, the works, directed by the master builder Giovanni Storni, led to the removal of numerous sculptures by Nicola and Giovanni Pisano. The statues, placed at the top of the first order above and inside the vimpergas, were replaced with works that did not imitate the medieval taste, while the original sculptures were almost all lost except for those now exhibited at the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo. The intervention should have also extended inside, with the creation of frescoes in the central basin, but the project was not concretized and was essentially limited to the removal of non-medieval furnishings and the installation of new windows.

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