Ingresso palazzo Arcivescovile (L. Corevi, Comune di Pisa)The archdiocese of Pisa includes a large part of the province, some areas of the Pisan hills south to Riparbella and the territories of Versilia and the Middle Serchio Valley. The Archbishop of Pisa has also the honorary title of Primate of Corsica and Sardinia. The first documented bishop was Gaudenzio, in the 4th century, who resided in the Curte Piscopi, or Episcope, where the Archbishopric is now located. Of the Domus Episcopi of 1178, which hosted Frederick Barbarossa, today very little remains, given that the current appearance is the result of extensions and restorations carried out between 1461 and 1473, under the guidance of Archbishop Filippo de’ Medici, who also commissioned the great cloister. The large courtyard shows stylistic details typical of the architectural culture of Humanism, and the palace as a whole appears to have been built with the intention of constructing a modern but at the same time old-fashioned building. The perspective centre of the cloister is the statue of Moses, an eighteenth-century work by Andrea Vaccà. The façade was also restored in Neo-Renaissance style in the 19th century. Near the palace, there was the ancient Archiepiscopatus Gate part of the presumed early medieval defensive structure, now no longer visible.
