San Piero A Grado, Pisa
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San Piero a Grado (Italian: ''Basilica di San Pietro Apostolo'') is a church 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 ...
, Tuscany, Italy, in the eponymous '' frazione'' west of the city center. The church is located where once was a now disappeared port of the Pisan Republic, where, according to the legend,
St. Peter ) (Simeon, Simon) , birth_date = , birth_place = Bethsaida, Gaulanitis, Syria, Roman Empire , death_date = Between AD 64–68 , death_place = probably Vatican Hill, Rome, Italia, Roman Empire , parents = John (or Jonah; Jona) , occupation ...
landed in Italy from Antiochia in 44 AD.


History and overview

Archaeological excavations have shown the presence of a Palaeo-Christian edifice in the area, built over civil Roman structures, which was later replaced by a larger church in the early Middle Ages (8th-9th centuries). The current construction, begun in the 10th century and renovated in the late 11th-early 12th centuries, has a basilica plan with a nave and two aisles. Unusual is the presence of apses the facade, probably built after the crumbling of the facade due to a flood of the
Arno River The Arno is a river in the Tuscany region of Italy. It is the most important river of central Italy after the Tiber. Source and route The river originates on Monte Falterona in the Casentino area of the Apennines, and initially takes a s ...
. The entrance is on the northern side. The exterior, made of stone of different provenance, is marked by pilaster strips and arches over which are precious ceramic basins (the originals are in the National Museum of St Matthew in Pisa) of Islamic, Majorca and Sicilian manufacture decorated with geometrical and figurative motifs (10th-11th centuries). The 12th-century bell tower was destroyed in 1944. Only the base has been rebuilt. The large and solemn interior, with truss ceiling, is divided into a nave and two aisles by antique columns with classical capitals. In the western part is a
Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
ciborium (early 15th century) which marks the place where Peter would pray for the first time. On the walls of the nave is a large fresco cycle, recently restored, by the Lucchese Deodato Orlandi (early 14th century), which was commissioned by the Caetani family for the 1300 jubilee. In the lower part are ''Portraits of Popes'', from St. Peter to John XVIII (1303); the intermediate portion has thirty panels with ''Histories of St. Peter's Life'' (as well of those of St. Paul, Constantine and St. Sylvester), similar to those in the Old St. Peter's Basilica and to Cimabue's work at San Francesco in
Assisi Assisi (, also , ; from la, Asisium) is a town and ''comune'' of Italy in the Province of Perugia in the Umbria region, on the western flank of Monte Subasio. It is generally regarded as the birthplace of the Latin poet Propertius, born aroun ...
. In the upper area are portrayed the ''Walls of the Heaven City'', largely restored in the following centuries. On the high altar is a wooden crucifix from the 17th century.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pietro A Grado 12th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Italy Basilica churches in Tuscany Roman Catholic churches in Pisa Romanesque architecture in Pisa