Campo Santo, piazza del Duomo

Interno Campo Santo Monumentale (L. Corevi, Comune di Pisa)

The monumental Campo Santo was built, at the behest of Archbishop Federigo Visconti, in 1276 by Giovanni di Simone (and later by Giovanni Pisano) to contain the elegant Roman sarcophagi that surrounded the Cathedral. Initially, the bodies contained in them were buried in the external courtyard of the building, delimited by an elegant late Gothic portico: the earth of the courtyard was transported by sea by the Pisans during the second Crusade of 1146 from Mount Calvary, the Golgotha, hence the name Campo Santo. The term was used until the fifteenth century only to indicate the Pisan building, then it became a common term to indicate a burial place. The edifice has been altered from its original appearance, as a disastrous fire partially destroyed its decorations and entire roof. The fire spread on 27 July 1944, due to a projectile that ended up near the Aulla chapel and there were no means to extinguish it. The surface of about 2000 square meters of medieval and Renaissance frescoes was heavily damaged, but the paintings were taken from the wall to be restored. For many centuries, the cycle of frescoes was considered a real painting manual, from the dawn of the fourteenth century, with Bonamico di Buffalmacco to the prospects of the Renaissance, with Benozzo Gozzoli, to the late Mannerist inventions of Aurelio Lomi.

The frescoes: from the front door, clockwise, we can see works from artists belonging to the Giotto school with the Stories of San Ranieri by Andrea di Buonaiuto and Antonio Veneziano (1367-1377), continuing with Saints Efisio and Potito, saints of Sardinian origin also venerated in Pisa, painted by Spinello Aretino (1380-1385). Both works are unfortunately severely damaged. The same goes for the Stories of Job, by Taddeo Gaddi (1340-1350) of which we can glimpse incredible architectures under a brilliant sky. Aurelio Lomi frescoed the western wing, with the Stories of Esther (16th century) almost completely disappeared. The Cosmography by Piero di Puccio from Orvieto (1389-1391), which represents the vision of the world before the discovery of America, opens the northern wing, which continues with the episodes of the Old Testament, first frescoed by Piero di Puccio and then by Benozzo Gozzoli (1468). The east wall shows us the Ascension, the Resurrection and the episode of St. Thomas, by Bonamico di Buffalmacco (1340) and a Crucifixion, the oldest fresco in the building, made around the thirties of the fourteenth century by Francesco Traini, the only Pisan artist. Finally, the cycle Triumph of Death, Universal Judgment, Hell and Thebaids by Bonamico di Buffalmacco (1336), initially attributed to Giotto. The gaze is captured by the figures of death, who with an ax goes to strike two unsuspecting kids in an orange grove, the violent gesture of the judgment of Christ and above all the cruel gaze of Dante's Lucifer while eating a sinner. A kind of irony is perceivable in the temptation of the anchorites, in the Thebaids, in the scene in which an elegant girl tries to enter a hermit's cave hiding her true nature, revealed under her wide skirt by the devil's claws.
The sarcophagi: they were part of the external decoration of the Cathedral, the epigraphs on its walls are still visible, and were reused for the burials of citizens in medieval times. Many were lost during the fire and the collapse of the roof in '44, but it is still possible to imagine the amazement of travellers in front of this richness. Each of them has its own style and peculiarity, like the sarcophagus of the Wild boar hunting (4th century), or the Good Shepherd and the Muses (II century) in the southern wing. Some of them were of great inspiration for the creation of medieval art masterpieces, such as the sarcophagus of Phaedra and Hippolytus (II century), burial place of Beatrice di Canossa and the Sarcophagus of the Muses (III century), which Nicola Pisano certainly had in mind during the construction of the Pulpit of the Baptistery. The stylistic continuum by masters such as Biduino in the XII century and Andrea di Francesco Guardi in 1443 is quite sting: the first built the sarcophagus of Giratto (in front of the Triumph of Death), with strigil motifs, showing one of the first inscriptions in the Italian vernacular 'HO(MO) KE VAI P(ER) VIA: PREGA D(EO) DELL'ANIMA MIA: Sì COME TU SE' EGO FUI: SICUS EGO SU(M) TU DEI ESSERE'; the second is the sarcophagus of Abbot Benedetto, with festoons held up by heroes and lion masks, also very similar to the classic model. Both are located in the southern wing.
The stylish tombs: in both wings, east and west, we find a splendid gallery of statues and tombs, some made by artists of great value, as in the case of the tomb of Giovanni Boncompagni by Bartolomeo Ammannati (1574), or the Inconsolable by Lorenzo Bartolini (1841), as well as busts and reliefs by Giovanni Dupré, Bertel Thorvaldsen, and Tribolo (first student of Michelangelo).
The chains of Porto Pisano: In medieval times they closed the entrance to Porto Pisano (now Livorno), but were taken by the Genoese after the war of Meloria, in 1284, and later donated to Florence. It was thanks to the unification of Italy that what remained of the chains was returned to the city of Pisa.