Campo Santo (Holy Field, the Monumental Cemetery)

The Campo Santo of Pisa (below), was built from 1278-1464 and was designed by the architect Giavonni di Simone, who died only six years into its construction. The courtyard was the fourth and last of the architectural feats to be built in the Piazza dei Miracoli. The name can literally be translated into “holy field”, because it was filled with sacred soil from Golgotha that was brought to Pisa from the crusades in the 12th century.

The structure is a specific type of primarily Italian cemetery that contains funerary monuments places under/in arcaded cloisters (roofed galleries) around the sides. These structure was usually attached to a monastery or church, often south of the nave and west of the transept. Also note the high ceiling that was a result of innovations in architecture and the pilasters that were used to decorate the compound piers. Because of the length of construction, the arches bear ornamentation (tracery) more characteristic of Gothic architecture, but the trussed roof is consistent with some of its contemporary Romanesque structures, such as the Abbey of Sant'Antimo in Siena, Italy. Originally, the cloisters had more frescos painted all along the sides around 1360, but most were destroyed in 1944 when an Allied bomb from a raid started a fire. Since then, efforts had been remade to restore and preserve parts of the original frescoes (see the additional pictures section).

Interior of the cloister. Note the damage to the walls.