Cortile degli Spedalinghi (L. Corevi, Comune di Pisa)
Spedalinghi courtyard, Santa Chiara hospital
Cortile degli Spedalinghi (L. Corevi, Comune di Pisa)TheSpedalinghi courtyard was the first nucleus of the hospital built by Alessandro IV between 1254 and 1258 as a sign of expiation for the Pisans incurred, in 1241, in a 16-year excommunication for having sided with Federico II. The courtyard still displays 19 coats of arms of the former hospital rectors. We can also note the structures of the church of Santa Chiara, formerly dedicated to the Holy Spirit. Its construction dates back to 1277, but it was radically transformed already in 1782, and again later. Inside there is a valuable carved wooden altar, coming from the Church of the Spina, with a fourteenth-century crucifix, next to which we see the reliquary of the thorn of Christ, also coming from the small oratory on the river.
