San Pietro in Vinculis is a
Romanesque-style,
Roman Catholic
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
church in
Pisa
Pisa ( ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) 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 the Leaning Tow ...
, region of
Tuscany
Tuscany ( ; ) is a Regions of Italy, region in central Italy with an area of about and a population of 3,660,834 inhabitants as of 2025. The capital city is Florence.
Tuscany is known for its landscapes, history, artistic legacy, and its in ...
,
Italy
Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
.
History
It was built by the
Augustinians in 1072-1118 over a pre-existing edifice. The rectory was added a few years later.
The structure follows the
Pisan Romanesque style
Pisan Romanesque style is a variant of the Romanesque architectural style that developed in Pisa at the end of the 10th century and which influenced a wide geographical area at the time when the city was a powerful maritime republic (from the se ...
established by
Buscheto
Buscheto or Busketus (sometimes also Buschetto or Boschetto, early Latin writers also used Bruschettus, active in Pisa between 1063 and 1110) was an Italian architect.
He designed the plans for Pisa's Cathedral Square (Piazza dei Miracoli) and thu ...
. It has a nave and two aisles with apses. The façade is articulated by
pilaster strips, blind arches, ''oculi'' (small circular windows), lozenges and
mullioned window
A mullion is a vertical element that forms a division between units of a window or screen, or is used decoratively. It is also often used as a division between double doors. When dividing adjacent window units its primary purpose is a rigid sup ...
s.
In the interior the
intarsia
Intarsia is a form of wood inlaying that is similar to marquetry. The practice dates from before the seventh century AD. The technique inserts sections of wood (at times with contrasting ivory or bone, or mother-of-pearl) within the solid wood ...
pavement lies over a
crypt
A crypt (from Greek κρύπτη (kryptē) ''wikt:crypta#Latin, crypta'' "Burial vault (tomb), vault") is a stone chamber beneath the floor of a church or other building. It typically contains coffins, Sarcophagus, sarcophagi, or Relic, religiou ...
with groin vaults and Roman capitals, perhaps the relic of an ancient market loggia later turned into a Christian temple. It houses a Roman sarcophagus, remains of frescoes and a ''Crucifix'' on panel from the 13th century. In the rectory are frescoes from the 13th and 15th centuries and 18th century stuccoes. The bell tower was in origin a civil tower (late 11th-early 12th century).
For years, the church kept a famous manuscript containing a digest of the ''
Corpus Juris Civilis
The ''Corpus Juris'' (or ''Iuris'') ''Civilis'' ("Body of Civil Law") is the modern name for a collection of fundamental works in jurisprudence, enacted from 529 to 534 by order of Byzantine Emperor Justinian I. It is also sometimes referred ...
'' of Emperor
Justinian I
Justinian I (, ; 48214 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was Roman emperor from 527 to 565.
His reign was marked by the ambitious but only partly realized ''renovatio imperii'', or "restoration of the Empire". This ambition was ...
of the Eastern Roman Empire. The document had fallen into Pisan hands after the sack of
Amalfi
Amalfi (, , ) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Salerno, in the region of Campania, Italy, on the Gulf of Salerno. It lies at the mouth of a deep ravine, at the foot of Monte Cerreto (1,315 metres, 4,314 feet), surrounded by dramatic c ...
in 1137. After Pisa fell in 1406, the
Florence
Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025.
Florence ...
the document was transferred to the latter city.
[From Italian Wikipedia Entry.]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pietro In Vinculis Pisa
Buildings and structures completed in 1118
12th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Italy
Pietro in Vinculis
Romanesque architecture in Pisa
Pisan Romanesque style