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Baptistry of St John
Piazza del Duomo, 23 56126 Pisa PI, Italy Phone: +39 050 835011About
The Pisa Baptistry of St. John is a Roman Catholic ecclesiastical building in Pisa, Italy. Construction started in 1152 to replace an older baptistry, and when it was completed in 1363, it became the second building, in chronological order, in the Piazza dei Miracoli, near the the Duomo di Pisa and the cathedral's free-standing campanile, the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa. The baptistry was designed by Diotisalvi, whose signature can be read on two pillars inside the building, with the date 1153. The interior is fairly plain, dimly lit and not especially attractive, but it includes two great treasures: the first of the great Pisano pulpits and the large baptismal font in the center. The baptistery's pulpit is a masterpiece carved in 1255-60 by Nicola Pisano. It was the prototype for a series of four monumental pulpits he created with his son Giovanni (the last, Giovanni's greatest work, is in Pisa's Duomo; the other two are in Pistoia and Siena).
