Overview
This landmark of the Pisan Romanesque style is certainly more than nine centuries old, discreet in its right-angled building forms but distinctive for its dense external banding in two colours and the series of small arches at the top. A document from 1119 speaks of it as a building "almost in ruins": what you visit today must essentially be the outcome of a reconstruction begun at that time. The portal has an elegant bas-relief lintel depicting the Last Supper, the work of a skilled local sculptor dated 1166.
The interior, which is not always open, has only one nave. Underneath the trusses, no shortage of art history is preserved between the time of reconstruction and the 14th century, when the building was extended. The refinement of the pulpit late 13th century sculpture by a student of Giovanni Pisano, the stoupthe work of his school and particularly the moving Visitation in snow-white glazed terracotta, modelled by Luca della Robbia in the mid-15th century and possibly the first piece of work ever made in the round using this technique. The bases of the two figures are separated, supposedly to avoid the risk of breakage during the intense kiln process required to fix the ceramic glaze on the terracotta.
