The Camposanto

To the north the Piazza del Duomo is closed by the white structure (130 meters long) of the Camposanto Monumentale. The marble front is enlivened by 43 blind arches. There are two doorways: the one on the right is surmounted by an elegant gothic tabernacle in the interior of which there is a beautiful sculpture by Giovanni Pisano representing the Virgin Mary with Child and various saints. Inside is the graveyard proper, where – according to the tradition – Pisan shipsin the Middle Ages brought soil from Mount Calvary in Palestine.

All around the graveyard, wide arcades with large elaborate windows. Under these arcades are many important archeological findings, several tumbstones of famous Pisans of the past, and an imposing cycle of frescoes, many of which hower have been removed to the safety of the adiacent halls.

Among the many paintings of the Camposanto, we just mention a few: in the North arcade, the stories of the Old Testament by Benozzo Gozzoli (XV century) which have been badly damaged in the second world war; the great Cosmography and the Stories of the Genesi by Piero di Puccio (end of the XV century); in the south arcade, the Story of Job by Taddeo Gaddo (middle of XIV century). The most remarkable and famous fresco in the Camposanto, is certainly the Trionfo della Morte (Triumph of death), painted in the XIV century by an unknown artist, called Maestro del Trionfo delle Morte. The fresco’s striking and crude realism, illustrates the gloomy mood of desperation and terror that spread over Europe after the black plague of 1348.