Pisa - Baptistery

(Local Name: Battistero) West of the cathedral in Pisa, on the same axis, stands the baptistery - here, as elsewhere in Italy, separate from the church to which it belongs. Construction began in 1153, almost a hundred years after the cathedral but still in the great days of Pisa.

The first architect was one Master Diotisalvi (inscription on pillars flanking the entrance). The likenesses between the baptistery and the cathedral are particularly marked in the earlier phases of the baptistery's construction - the use of the same building material, the patterning with different colors of stone, the articulation of the structure by blind arcading and dwarf galleries. Since the work of construction continued, with interruptions, for two centuries the architecture of the baptizery shows the transition from Romanesque to Gothic between the lower and the upper levels. In 1260 Nicola Pisano took over responsibility for the project, followed (1285-93) by his son Giovanni. The roof vaulting was completed in 1358, and the 3.30m/11ft high figure of John the Baptist which tops the dome was set up towards the end of the 14th century. Most of the figures on the outside of the building have now been replaced by copies; the originals are in museums.