San Pietro in Vinculis, Romanesque church in Pisa, Italy.
San Pietro in Vinculis is a Pisan Romanesque church on Via Cavour, built from 1072 and consecrated in 1118. Its verrucano stone facade has a steep gable and three portals topped by mullioned windows, with five blind arches on the lower order and three above, ending in a pediment with an oculus. Inside are three apsed naves of eight bays on seven columns with Corinthian Roman capitals, a Cosmatesque inlaid floor, and a crypt with groin vaults.
A church called San Pietro ai Sette Pini stood on this site and was first recorded in 763; it is attested until 1005. By 1018 a church with the current name existed, and the present building was rebuilt from 1072 by Augustinian canons and consecrated in 1118. Repairs followed the 1117 earthquake, including the lower facade. In 1488 the church passed to Olivetan Benedictines.
The church is also called San Pierino, and since 2019 it has hosted some Byzantine-rite masses of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, a Catholic Church of the Eastern rite in communion with Rome. The name in Vinculis refers to the chains of Saint Peter.
The church stands on Via Cavour, and its right side is covered by adjoining buildings while the left side repeats the facade's pilaster strips, blind arches, oculi and lozenges. The bell tower at the rear began as a civil tower of the late 11th or early 12th century and keeps its very narrow medieval openings.
Until 1406, this church guarded the Pisan Pandects, a fundamental legal manuscript containing Justinian's Digest. This precious document was later moved to Florence and became an important reference for legal scholars across centuries.
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