Description
The church of San Michele degli Scalzi stands in the eastern part of Pisa, close to the Arno: a Romanesque building with a marble façade, a bell tower that leans more than the one at the Duomo, and an interior that tilts too.
The name comes from the monks of Santa Maria di Pulsano, in the Gargano, who were given the convent in 1178. They were known as "the barefoot ones." The ground here, once half marshland, is soft, and that is why everything leans.
The unfinished façade is clad in marble from the San Giuliano quarries, with five blind arcades on columns, oculi and lozenges. Above the central portal is the Blessing Christ of 1203-1204, frontal and solemn, Byzantine in taste. It is a copy: the original is in the Museo di San Matteo.
The bell tower leans five degrees toward the Arno, more than the Leaning Tower. It is decorated with 12th-century Islamic ceramic bowls, also copies. The three bells ring without moving, with an electric clapper, so as not to stress the structure.
Inside are three naves with eight bays, columns with Romanesque or reused capitals, and a wooden truss roof. Don't miss the painted Crucifix on panel, in tempera and gold, from the 13th century, and the remains of a 14th-century fresco with Saint Onuphrius, Saint Helena and a monk bishop.
In the 18th century the church was filled with stucco and decoration. In the early 20th century a restoration removed it to bring back the Romanesque look. Then came the war: bombing took away the entire right aisle, and the flood of 1949 damaged it again.
The right wall is now reinforced concrete, with an inner frame of the same material, easy to spot among the bricks. Between 1928 and 1952, the square in front of the church was the terminus of a tram line.
For centuries the church has also been tied to the cult of Saint Ubaldo, bishop and patron saint of Gubbio, to whom the faithful turn to be freed from the evil one and from mental distress.
The name comes from the monks of Santa Maria di Pulsano, in the Gargano, who were given the convent in 1178. They were known as "the barefoot ones." The ground here, once half marshland, is soft, and that is why everything leans.
The unfinished façade is clad in marble from the San Giuliano quarries, with five blind arcades on columns, oculi and lozenges. Above the central portal is the Blessing Christ of 1203-1204, frontal and solemn, Byzantine in taste. It is a copy: the original is in the Museo di San Matteo.
The bell tower leans five degrees toward the Arno, more than the Leaning Tower. It is decorated with 12th-century Islamic ceramic bowls, also copies. The three bells ring without moving, with an electric clapper, so as not to stress the structure.
Inside are three naves with eight bays, columns with Romanesque or reused capitals, and a wooden truss roof. Don't miss the painted Crucifix on panel, in tempera and gold, from the 13th century, and the remains of a 14th-century fresco with Saint Onuphrius, Saint Helena and a monk bishop.
In the 18th century the church was filled with stucco and decoration. In the early 20th century a restoration removed it to bring back the Romanesque look. Then came the war: bombing took away the entire right aisle, and the flood of 1949 damaged it again.
The right wall is now reinforced concrete, with an inner frame of the same material, easy to spot among the bricks. Between 1928 and 1952, the square in front of the church was the terminus of a tram line.
For centuries the church has also been tied to the cult of Saint Ubaldo, bishop and patron saint of Gubbio, to whom the faithful turn to be freed from the evil one and from mental distress.