The Pisa Baptistery of St. John ( it, Battistero di San Giovanni) is a Roman Catholic ecclesiastical building in
Pisa
Pisa ( , or ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for its leaning tower, the cit ...
,
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
. Construction started in 1152 to replace an older
baptistery
In Christian architecture the baptistery or baptistry (Old French ''baptisterie''; Latin ''baptisterium''; Greek , 'bathing-place, baptistery', from , baptÃzein, 'to baptize') is the separate centrally planned structure surrounding the baptismal ...
, and when it was completed in 1363, it became the second building, in chronological order, in the
Piazza dei Miracoli
The Piazza dei Miracoli (; en, Square of Miracles), formally known as Piazza del Duomo ( en, Cathedral Square), is a walled 8.87-hectare area located in Pisa, Tuscany, Italy, recognized as an important centre of European medieval art and one of ...
, near the
Duomo di Pisa
Pisa Cathedral ( it, Cattedrale Metropolitana Primaziale di Santa Maria Assunta; Duomo di Pisa) is a medieval Roman Catholic cathedral dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, in the Piazza dei Miracoli in Pisa, Italy, the oldest of the t ...
and the cathedral's free-standing
campanile
A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell tower ...
, the famous
Leaning Tower of Pisa
The Leaning Tower of Pisa ( it, torre pendente di Pisa), or simply, the Tower of Pisa (''torre di Pisa'' ), is the ''bell tower, campanile'', or freestanding bell tower, of Pisa Cathedral. It is known for its nearly four-degree lean, the result ...
. The baptistery was designed by
Diotisalvi, whose signature can be read on two pillars inside the building, with the date 1153.
Description
The largest baptistery in Italy, it is 54.86 m high, with a diameter of 34.13 m. The Pisa Baptistery is an example of the transition from the
Romanesque style to the