Chiesa di San Giovanni Fuorcivitas

San Giovanni Fuorcivitas preserves its former position outside Pistoia's early walls in its name. White marble and green serpentine give the Romanesque exterior a strong striped pattern, while the interior contains major works of sculpture and painting.

Why it matters

The church brings successive phases of patronage into a compact setting. Romanesque stone carving, a thirteenth-century pulpit, later panel painting and glazed terracotta represent different periods of the city's artistic history.

What to notice

Blind arches and tiers of small loggias articulate the northern side. Gruamonte's carved architrave depicts the Last Supper. Inside, Fra Guglielmo da Pisa's pulpit of 1270 contrasts with the glazed Visitation attributed to Luca della Robbia. A holy-water font is attributed to Giovanni Pisano, and Taddeo Gaddi's polyptych joins the sculptural works with a painted devotional ensemble.

Context and history

The surviving church developed between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries, possibly on the site of an earlier Lombard foundation. Urban expansion brought the once-extramural site into the city's built fabric. Its artworks continued to accumulate beyond the medieval building campaign, giving the church a history extending from Romanesque architecture into the Renaissance.