Basilica of San Piero a Grado
The Basilica of San Piero a Grado is located in the district of the same name in the Tuscan city of Pisa , approx. 8 km southwest of the city center. It is located at the point where the main arm of the Arno flowed into a lagoon in Roman times , which later silted up. This is where St. Peter is said to have set foot on Italian soil for the first time on his journey to Rome . For the pilgrims of the Middle Ages, the pilgrimage church was an important stop on the way to Rome. Already from this time it bears the title Basilica minor .
Building history
The construction of the basilica in Romanesque- Pisan style was started in the 10th century as an extension of an older building and was completed in the 11th century . Excavations reveal three building epochs: Roman foundations of port buildings, the wall of the apse of the first, early Christian church from the 4th century and the apses of the 2nd church from the 6th / 7th. Century.
The columns, with their Corinthian , Ionic and even Syrian capitals, come from earlier Roman buildings. The arches between the columns clearly show the different phases of construction of this basilica: first the one to the east with smaller arches, and then the part with larger arches to the sea; As you can see from the foundations, this part should have been much longer and should have ended with the facade. The destruction of the facade remains a mystery to this day, and as a result, the basilica, like the ancient basilicas from the Roman imperial era, is enclosed by opposite apses.
The campanile dates from the 12th century. It was destroyed on July 22, 1944 by soldiers of the Wehrmacht when they withdrew and only rebuilt as a short stump.
Frescoes inside
The frescoes in the interior of the basilica date from the last years of the 13th and the first of the 14th centuries and were made by Deodato Orlandi, a painter from Lucca who worked in Pisa. It seems that in the individual representations of the central nave he has motifs from the life of St. Peter, from the calling of Jesus to the events from the Acts of the Apostles , the arrival "ad gradus arnenses", the martyrdom together with that of St. Paul repeated the funeral and other events that once adorned the atrium of the old basilica of St. Pietro sul Vaticano. Below these large frescoes the Roman popes are depicted, from St. Peter to John XVIII. who was Pope from 1004 to 1009. This particular series of papal portraits is reminiscent of that in S. Paolo in Rome, with the difference that this in S. Piero is much older. The frescoes in the side aisles have largely been lost due to the negligence of the time and the considerable remodeling that the church has undergone over the centuries.
Outer walls
In the facing of the outer walls of the basilica there are some stones with reliefs in the classical and Romanesque style as well as some inscriptions from the Roman era. Under the eaves on the north exterior one can admire beautiful ceramics in Moorish style; they are among the most famous of these types of decorations in the Pisa area.
literature
- Klaus Zimmermanns: Toscana ; Art guide. DuMont Buchverlag, Cologne, 3rd edition 2000, ISBN 3-7701-3556-3 , p. 90.
Web links
- Information from the Comune di Pisa ( Memento from September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (German)
Coordinates: 43 ° 40 ′ 47 " N , 10 ° 20 ′ 48" E