San Giovanni Fuoricivitas, Romanesque church in Pistoia, Italy
San Giovanni Fuoricivitas is a Romanesque church in Pistoia whose northern facade is covered in horizontal bands of white marble and green serpentine stone from Prato. Inside, the space holds glazed terracotta figures by Luca della Robbia, a marble holy water font by Giovanni Pisano, and a polyptych by Taddeo Gaddi.
The church was built in the 12th century on the site of an earlier Lombard religious building, standing outside the medieval city walls of Pistoia at the time. The name Fuoricivitas, meaning outside the city, reflects this original position, even though the city has since grown around it.
The entrance portal carries a marble carving from 1166 showing the Last Supper, which once served as a visual lesson for people passing by. Standing in front of it today, you can still see how carefully the scene was arranged to tell a story to a wide audience.
The church sits in central Pistoia and is easy to reach on foot from most of the city's other main sights. It is worth checking opening hours before you visit, as access to the interior is not always guaranteed.
The church's cloister is the only Romanesque structure in Pistoia that combines stone and brickwork, with column capitals carved as lion and ox heads. This type of animal motif was unusual in the region's medieval religious buildings and is rarely found elsewhere.
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