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The Piazza del Duomo ("Cathedral Square") is a wide, walled area at the heart of the city of Pisa, Tuscany, Italy, recognized as one of the main centers for medieval art in the world.

Partly paved and partly grassed, it is dominated by four great religious edifices: the Leaning Tower (the cathedral's campanile), the Duomo, the Baptistery and the Camposanto.It is otherwise known as Piazza dei Miracoli ("Square of Miracles")

Image internet

This name was created by the Italian writer and poet Gabriele d'Annunzio

Italy's largest baptistery (54.86m tall and 104m in circumference), the Battistero di San Giovanni is also slightly taller than the Leaning Tower across the square. As it shares the same unstable ground as the tower, the baptistery also has a slight lean of 0.6 degrees towards the cathedral.

Construction on the baptistery began in the Romanesque style under Diotisalvi in 1153. Nicola and Giovanni Pisano gave the upper part a Gothic transformation between 1277 and 1297 and Cellino di Nese added the Gothic dome in the 1300s. It was finally completed in 1363.

The lower register of the baptistery is 12th-century Romanesque (with round blind arches), while the upper parts are predominantly 13th-century Gothic (with pointed arches).

The exterior of the second register was decorated with statues and designs by Giovanni Pisano; most of these have been removed to the nearby Museo dell'Opera del Duomo and have been replaced with copies

The Baptistery is constructed of marble, plentiful and often used in Italian architecture. The immensity of the interior is overwhelming, but it is surprisingly plain and lacks decoration

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)

The pulpit's high reliefs, which depict scenes from the life of Christ, are strongly influenced by classical art - including the Roman sarcophagi and Greek vase now in the Camposanto. Many of the figures look like pagan gods Christianized as Madonnas and saints.

The central baptismal font was carved and inlaid in 1246 by the Gothic sculptor Guido Bigarelli da Como (active 1238-57). In the center of the font is a 20th-century statue of St. John the Baptist, to whom the baptistery is dedicated.

The baptistery is renowned for its perfect acoustics - choir concerts held inside can be heard from miles away.

You can test the acoustics by arriving when it is least crowded (such as first thing in the morning), getting as close to the center as possible and sounding a loud note - it will echo around the room as it fades

Sound: Felix Mendelssohn - Sacred Choral Works

Cambridge Trinity College Choir

Pictures: Daniela Iacob

Arangement: Sanda Foişoreanu