San Piero a Grado

The Basilica of San Piero a Grado is located in the same district of the Tuscan city of Pisa, about 8 km southwest of downtown. It is located at the point where culminated in Roman times, the main arm of the Arno in a lagoon silted up later. Here St. Peter is said to have entered on his journey to Rome for the first time Italian soil. For the pilgrims of the Middle Ages, the pilgrimage church was an important stop on the way to Rome. Even from that time, she has the title basilica minor.

Architectural History

The construction of the basilica in Romanesque-Pisan style was started as an extension of an older building in the 10th century and completed in the 11th century. Excavations reveal three eras: Roman Foundations of the port buildings, the wall of the apse of the first church built in the 4th century and the apses of the second church from the 6/7 Century.

The columns with their Corinthian, Doric, and even Syrian capitals come from earlier Roman buildings. The arch between the pillars clearly show the different phases of this basilica: the first to the east with smaller arches, and in the aftermath of the part with larger bows towards the sea; how to recognize the foundations, this part would be much longer and are flush with the facade. The destruction of the façade remains still a mystery, and as a result the Basilica as the ancient basilicas is included in the Roman Empire by opposing apses.

The bell came from the 12th century. It was destroyed in 1944, and built only as a short stump again.

Frescoes inside

The frescoes in the interior of the basilica date from the last years of the 13th and the first of the 14th century and were performed by Deodato Orlandi, a busy painter in Pisa from Lucca. It seems he has in the various representations of the nave motifs from the life of St. Peter, by the Appeals Jesus, to the events of the book of Acts, the arrival of "ad gradus arnenses " martyrdom together with the Holy Paul, burial, and other events repeated once adorned the atrium of the old Basilica of St. Pietro sul Vaticano. Below this large frescoes the Roman Pontiffs are shown, from St. Peter to John XVIII. , Who was pope from 1004 to 1009. This particular episode of Papstbildnisse reminiscent of the S. Paolo in Rome, with the difference that this is much older in S. Piero. The frescoes in the side aisles have gone through the negligence of that time and the remarkable transformations which it has undergone the Church over the centuries, largely lost.

Exterior walls

In the facing of the outer walls of the basilica, there are some stones with reliefs in the classical and Romanesque style as well as some inscriptions from the Roman period. Under the eaves on the north outside you can admire beautiful ceramics in Moorish style; they are among the best known of this type of decoration in the room Pisa.