San Frediano, Romanesque church in Pisa, Italy.
San Frediano is a Romanesque church in Pisa, with an interior divided into three naves carried by marble columns with carved capitals. The plain stone facade contrasts with the care given to the interior layout, where the columns draw your eye steadily toward the altar end.
The church was founded in 1061 by the Buzzaccherini-Sismondi family and was first dedicated to Saint Martin, with a hospital attached for the local population. It was later rededicated to Saint Frediano, an Irish bishop who worked in Tuscany in the 6th century.
The wooden crucifix in the Chapel of the Holy Cross shows Christ as a triumphant king rather than a suffering figure, upright and with open eyes. This type of image, known as Christus Triumphans, was common in Romanesque art and differs clearly from the suffering Christ that became more common in later centuries.
The church sits in central Pisa and is easy to reach on foot from most other sights in the city. A visit in the morning tends to offer better natural light inside and fewer other visitors than later in the day.
Greek inscriptions carved at eye level near the entrance portal match markings found on two other buildings in Pisa. Their origin has not been fully explained, which suggests ties to Mediterranean trading networks of earlier centuries that are no longer easy to trace.
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