The Monumental Cemetery of Pisa was the final structure to be built on the Piazza del Duomo, following the cathedral, the baptistery, and the famous Leaning Tower. The cemetery, a central lawn bordered by Gothic porticoes, was built in 1277 and during the Middle Ages; prominent local people were buried there in traditional Roman sarcophagi. (...)
The Monumental Cemetery of Pisa was the final structure to be built on the Piazza del Duomo, following the cathedral, the baptistery, and the famous Leaning Tower. The cemetery, a central lawn bordered by Gothic porticoes, was built in 1277 and during the Middle Ages; prominent local people were buried there in traditional Roman sarcophagi. The earth of the grassy courtyard was thought to have been carried back from Palestine in the Second Crusade and therefore earned the name camposanto, literally “holy field.”
The walls of the porticoes that run along its perimeter were covered with frescoes in the fourteenth century by respected artists Francisco Traini, Bonamico Buffalmacco, Andrea Bonaiuti, and Antonio Veneziano. They depicted images from Dante’s Divine Comedy and stories of Pisan saints. In the fifteenth century, Old Testament scenes were added by Benozzo Gozzoli.
When Napoleon reigned as King of Italy in the early nineteenth century, he commanded that all art be taken out of religious buildings and so nearby churches hid their works in the cemetery. During World War II, the frescoes were damaged in a fire started by a grenade and were removed from the walls. Conservation was attempted but the materials and techniques available at the time only harmed them further, causing a white patina to coat the surface.
