Pistoia - St John Outside the Town

(Local Name: San Giovanni Fuorcivitas) The building of this church (St John outside the town), on the site of an earlier (eighth century) church beyond the town walls, began in the mid 12th century but was completed only in the 14th century. Although the west front is in plain brick, the south side of the church is faced with bands of white and green marble. It has three orders, differing in height, of blind arcading; within the arches are rhombs filled with ornament. On the lintel of the doorway in the south front is a relief, the "Last Supper" by Gruamonte (c. 1160), and in the tympanum above this is a figure of John the Baptist (14th century Pisan school) flanked by two lions. The most notable feature in the interior of this aisleless church is the pulpit by Fra Guglielmo da Pisa (1270), which has reliefs of the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Adoration of the Kings, the Washing of the Feet, the Crucifixion, the Descent from the Cross, the Descent into Limbo, the Ascension, Pentecost and the Death of the Virgin. The holy water stoup has representations of the three Theological Virtues and the four Cardinal Virtues (the latter an early work by Giovanni Pisano). To the left of the high altar is a polyptych (1353-55) by Taddeo Gaddi, and on the left- hand side altar a terracotta of the Visitation from the workshop of the della Robbias.